
Glass F^3* 
Book .U_5"( 



OFFICIAL DONATION. 



38th Congress, ) SENATE. ( Ex. Doc. 

1st Session. ) \ No. 11. 



MESSAGE 



FROM .HE 



PRESIDENT OE THE UNITED STATES 



COMMUNICATING, 



f/ 



In answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 2ot7i ultimo, papers relative to 

Mexican affairs. 



June 90, .'-1854. — Read and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 

June 29, 1864. — Committee discharged, and referred to the Committee on Printing. 

January 25, 1865. — Reported in favor, and ordered to be printed. 



To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit herewith a further report frora^fche Secretary of State, in answer 
to the resolution.' of the Senate of the 25th ultimo, relative to Mexican affairs, 
with the papers therein referred to. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Washington, June 16, 1S64. 



\X, t S. Department of State, 
»• Washington, June 16, 1864. 

Pursuant to the intimation contained in the report of the Secretary of State 
to the President, of the 30th ultimo, and in further reply to the resolution of 
the Senate of the 25th ultimo, relative to the condition of affairs in Mexico, 
the Secretary of State has the honor to lay before the President the papers 
mentioned in the annexed list. 
Respectfully submitted : 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
The President. 



INDEX TO PAPERS RELATIVE TO MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 
No. 1. — Correspondence of Mr. Corwin, United States minister in Mexico. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin Nov. 26, 1862 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward, (with two enclosures) Oct. 27, 1862 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward . Nov. 19, 1862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin - Jan. 2, 1863 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward Jan. 8, 3863 

Same to same Jan. 27, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin j Feb. 25, 1863 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward, (with ten enclosures) March 11, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin .,.. April 18, 1863 

Same to same May 22, 1863 



Y 12-33 

II INDEX. • LL 5 H 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward April 16, 1863 

Same to same May 1, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin June 8, 1863 

Same to same # August 8, 1863 

Same to same, (with one enclosure) Dec. 23, 1863 

No. 2. — Shipment of arms to Mexico. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Nov. 22, 1862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with enclosures) Nov. 24, 1862 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Dec. 10, 1862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Dec. 15, 1862 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Dec. 20, 1862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Jan. 7, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Jan. 14, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Jan. 17, 1863 

Mr. Eankin to Mr. Seward Jan. 14, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eankin, (with one enclosure) Jan. 15, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Jan. 20, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Jan. 21, 1863 

General Canby to Mr. Seward Feb. 17, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero • Feb. 19, 1864 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Feb. 20, 1864 

No. 3. — Intervention in New Granada. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward March 19, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 20, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward March 21, 1S63 

No. 4. — Case of the Steamer " Noc-Daquy." 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Feb. 23, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero 1 .^.Feb. 25, 1863 

Same to same W. March 6, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward March 6, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with twelve enclosures) March 13, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with four enclosures) April 15, 1863 

No. 5. — Affairs on the frontiers of Mexico. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Feb. 26, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 10, 1863 

Same to same, (one enclosure) April 2, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin, (with two enclosures) May 12, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward Feb. 4, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Feb. 9, 1864 

Same to same, (seven enclosures) ■ Marcb 12, 1864 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward March 15, 1864 

No. 6. — Claims of United States citizens against Mexico. 

Mr. Eomero to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican republic Oct. 23, 1862 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) Feb. 26, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 9, 1863 

No. 7. — The temporary withdrawal of Mr. Romero from Washington. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward April 23, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero April 23, 1863 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward May 8, 1863 

No, 8. — Case of the Mexican prisoners confined at Fort Delaicare. 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward Sept. 18, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda Sept. 21, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda Sept. 24, 1863 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward Sept. 28, 186$ 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Feb. 15, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with one enclosure) March 15, 1864 

Mr. Eo nero to Mr. Seward March 17, 1864 

Same to same, (with two enclosures) April 25, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eon:ero April 28, 1864 



";<v 



1-2%< 



INDEX. ' /^ jKLJf / III 



No. 9. — Protection of Mexican citizens in California. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with four enclosures) March 12, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 17, 1864 

No. 10. — Case of the Mexican brig "Raton del Nilo." 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Feb. 18, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Feb. 20, 1864 

Same to same, (one enclosure) Feb. 24, 1864 

No. 11. — The condition of affairs in Mexico. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with thirteen enclosures) March 31 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero April 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Nov. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Nov. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, ( with enclosures) Jan. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) Jan. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero Feb. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) Feb. 

Same to same, (enclosures) Feb. 

Same to same, (enclosures) r Feb. 

Same to same, (enclosures) Feb. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) Feb. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) Feb. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero March 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with ten enclosures) March 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with thirteen enclosures) March 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures ) May 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero May- 
Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) May 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero May 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) May 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero May 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures ) May 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero June 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with enclosures) May 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero June 

No. 12. — Case of the Mexican brig " Oriente.' 1 '' 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward, (with two enclosures) June 24, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda June 30, 1863 

No. 13. — Case of the Mexican brig " Brilliante. 1 ' 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) March 6, 1 862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with two enclosures) „ March 12, 1862 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward, (with two enclosures) June 23, 1862 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero July 14, 1862 

Same to same, (with one enclosure) August 4, 1862 

No. 14. — Correspondence of legations of the United States on Mexican affairs. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Jan. 23, 1863 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward March 11, 1863 

Same to same April 9, 1863 

Same to same, (with one enclosure) April 24, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton April 24, 1863 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward April 27, 1863 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward ....' May 1, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton May 8, 1863 

Same to same May 18, 1863 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward May 29, 1863 

Same to same -. May 29, 1863 

Same to same .- June 11, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton June 12, 1863 



31, 


1863 


12, 


1863 


6, 


1863 


6, 


1863 


26, 


1864 


33, 


1864 


11. 


1864 


2, 


1864 


20, 


1864 


24, 


1864 


25, 


1864 


8, 


1864 


26, 


1864 


29, 


1864 


2, 


1864 


1, 


1864 


2, 


1864 


10, 


1864 


31, 


1864 


23, 


1864 


25, 


1864 


24, 


1£64 


25, 


1864 


28, 


1864 


2, 


1864 


31, 


1864 


15, 


1864 



IV INDEX, 

Same to same June 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) .June 

Same to same (with one enclosure) June 

Same to same July 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton July 

Same to same July 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward ; Aug. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton Aug. 

Same to same Sept. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward Sept. 

8auie to same Sept. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton Sept. 

Same to same, (with three enclosures) Sept. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward Sept. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton Sept. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton Oct. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward Oct. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton Oct. 

Same to same Oct. 

Same to same Oct. 

Mr. Drouyn de l'Huys to Mr. Merrier Sept. 

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward Aug. 

Same to same Sept. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike , Sept. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry Sept. 

Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Aug. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley Sept. 

Same to same Sept. 

Same to same Oct. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Nelson June 

Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Sept. 

Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward (with one enclosure Sept. 

Mr. Thayer to Mr. Seward Jan. 

Same to same Jan. 

Same to same , Jan. 

No. 15. — Suspension of trade with Matamoras. 

Mr. Eomero to Mr. Seward July 11, 1861 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with two enclosures) July 17, 1861 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) .• July 23, 1861 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with one enclosure) July 31, 1861 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Aug. 1, 1861 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) Sept. 2, 1 861 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with one enclosure) Sept. 7, 1861 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Sept. 10, 1861 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero Sept. 13, 1861 



1-2, 


1863 


17, 


1863 


26, 


1863 


2. 


1863 


17, 


1863 


25, 


1863 


21, 


1863 


31, 


1863 


7, 


1863 


14. 


1863 


16, 


1863 


21. 


1863 


22, 


1863 


2">, 


1863 


26, 


1863 


5, 


1863 


9, 


1863 


10, 


1863 


23, 


1863 


28, 


1863 


15, 


1863 


19, 


1863 


2, 


1863 


5. 


1863 


21. 


1863 


17, 


1863 


11, 


1863 


26, 


1863 


9. 


1863 


19, 


1862 


1, 


1862 


17, 


1862 


9, 


1863 


12, 


1863 


27, 


1863 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



No. 1. — Correspondence of Mr. Cor win, United States minister, Mexico. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin Nov. 26,1862. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward, (with two enclosures) Oct. 27, 1862. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward Nov. 19,1862. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin Jan. 2, 1863. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward Jan. 8, 1863. 

Same to same - Jan. 27, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin Feb. 25,1863. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward, (with ten enclosures) March 11, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin <. April 18,1863. 

Same to same May 22, 1863. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward April 16,1863. 

Same to same May 1, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin June 8,1863. 

Same to same August 8, 1863. 

Same to same, (with one enclosure) Dec. 23,1863. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 

No. 61.] Department of State, 

Washington, November 26, 1862. 

Sir: Your despatch of October 27 (No. 34) has been received. It presents, 
in a very brief yet a very comprehensive way, the political and military situa- 
tion of Mexico. 

Under date of the 24th instant I addressed you a despatch, (No. 61,) which 
was forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and for which you will please con- 
sider the present a substitute, the first of this number having been cancelled. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



Thomas Corwin, Esq. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract.] 

No. 34.] Legation of the United States, 

Mexico, October 27, 1862. 

Sir : Since my last despatch, Buitron, a celebrated robber-chief, sent in his 
adhesion to the government, and has plaeed himself and about 600 men under 
the command of the proper military officers of the republic. General Comon- 
fort is now here with 5,000 men, on his march to the main army at Puebla. 
General Doblado, late secretary of state, is in Guanajuato with about the same 
number of men, preparing to move to Puebla in time to meet the advance of the 
French troops upon that place. 

On the 20th of this month congress was opened. The reply to the Presi- 
dent's speech pledges the hearty co-operation of congress and its constituents 



2 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

in all measures necessary to repel the invasion of the French. I see no indi 
cation of a party in this country favorable to intervention or invasion by the 
French, or any other foreign power. 

The French troops are now moving from Vera Cruz to this city, by way of 
Jalapa. When all the troops now here, and those daily expected, are united, 
they can present an army of 25,0t)0 men. Arrivals of either detachments are 
spoken of. If the invaders choose to attack Puebla, where the Mexican army 
is strongly fortified, about seventy miles from this city, the battle there will, if 
favorable to the French, enable them to take this city without any doubt. In 
the latter event, the government officials will leave with the archives and take 
up a position in some of the states where it will be most difficult for a military 
' force to march and capture them. This state of things, it is believed, will only 

begin a war of two or three years' duration. 

************ 



Your obedient servant, 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, 8fc. 



THOMAS CORWIN. 



Exhibit B — Despatch No. 34. 

[Translation.] 

Mexico, October 3, 1862. 
Mr. Minister : The undersigned, members of the diplomatic corps, present in the city ot 
Mexico, have learned with regret of the arrest of several foreigners, to whom the Mexican 
authorities had given notice of the order to depart from the capital withiu forty-eight hours, 
with the view of betaking themselves out of the territory of the republic. 

The undersigned would be pleased to believe that the government will not cany out a 
measure so severe without having evident proofs that these foreigners have committed hos- 
tile acts against the state, and that their presence in Mexico offers a real danger. 

They hope, therefore, that the government of the republic will be pleased to communicate 
to them its final determination, reserving to themselves the making to it of ulterior and 
essential communications with respect to the same measure. 

The undersigned have the honor to renew to his excellency the minister of foreign rela- 
tions the assurance of their high consideration. 

THOMAS COEW1N, 

E. E. Sf M. P. of the U. S. A. 
E. D. WAGNER. 
FR'CO DE P. PASTOR. 
ATJGUSTE V. KINT DE ROODENBECK. 
MANUEL NICHOLAS COPANCHO. 
NARCISO DE P. MARTIN. 
His Excellency Mr. Juan Antonio de la Fuente, 

Minister of Foreign Relations, Sfc, 8fc. 



Exhibit B 2— Despatch No. 3fl. 

[Translation.] 

National Palace, 

Mexico, October 3, 1862. 
The undersigned, minister of foreign relations of the Mexican republic, has received the 
joint note which their excellencies the members of the diplomatic corps present in the city of 
Mexico have done him the honor to address to him on this day, in reference to the order 
issued by the government of the president to arrest some foreigners, to make them depart 
from the capital within forty-eight hours, and to compel them to quit the Mexican territory. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 6 

Their excellencies add, that they are. pleased to believe that the general government will 
not carry out this determination without having evident proofs that these foreigners have 
committed hostile acts against the state, and that their presence in Mexico was really danger- 
ous. Finally, their excellencies manifest the desire that the government of the republic may 
communicate to them its resolution upon this question, reserving to themselves the transmis- 
sion to it of their ulterior communications, essentially connected with the measure in ques- 
tion. 

The undersigned, after having received the instructions from the president, hastens to reply 
to the points which he has just stated in the same terms employed by the honorable members 
of the diplomatic corps. 

In truth, if the government hesitated for a moment in the full conviction, which it has, of 
having decreed upon good grounds this expulsion, it would avoid, indeed, the carrying of it 
into effect ; in this respect the joint note does it justice ; but the undersigned regrets very 
much that the presumption of uprightness in the general government should not extend to 
the time when it thought proper to adopt the measure which is referred to, but that it should 
only include the interval which may elapse between its adoption and its execution. And, 
nevertheless, that presumption prima facie would have been reasonable, because the opinion 
of justification is so in the resolutions which a legitimate authority takes in exercising its 
powers, until it is proved otherwise. But the undersigned would persuade hiniself that the 
omission, to which he has just referred, was not a deliberate one. 

Recurring to the essential point of this affair, the undersigned must repeat in this note 
what he. has already had the honor of saying verbally to some of the messieurs tho ministers 
who have conferred with him privately and confidentially upon this affair, to wit, that the 
federal government, with good data examined with mature and calm deliberation, has entirely 
satisfied itself that the foreigners in question were violating, by their conduct, the neutrality 
to which they were subject, and that, for this reason, their residence in the country com- 
promitted seriously the public tranquillity, and even with some danger to their own persons. 

By the constitution and laws of Mexico, the federal government is invested, at all times, 
with the authority of issuing a passport to, and to cause to leave the national territory, any 
foreigner not naturalized, whose continued residence it may deem prejudicial to the public 
order. This right of the government was of itself a duty in the present very critical situa- 
tion. The action of the government had to be as prompt as the circumstances in which the 
republic finds itself are threatening, and repressing these excesses with measures proper even 
of the normal times, the government of the president has desired to show once more, as on 
so many others, that it exercises with moderation the right of the national defence, although 
there is being waged against Mexico a war equally unjust in its causes, as in its means and 
ends. 

Thus, therefore, the definitive resolution of the government is, to carry into operation the 
measure to which the honorable members of the diplomatic corps refer. 

The undersigned takes pleasure in reiterating to their excellencies the assurances of his 
high consideration. 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTE, 

His Excellency Mr. Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 

of the U. S. of America, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract.] 



No. 36.] Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, November 19, 1862. 
g IR: *######## *** 

There are now about 42,000 French troops in Mexico. These are on their 
march from the Gulf coast to Puebla by two routes — one division by Jalapa, the 
other by Orizaba. It is, doubtless, their intention to concentrate their main 
army at the siege of Puebla. This latter is a strongly fortified city, about 
seventy miles from this city, and on the direct route from this to Vera Cruz. 
Military men suppose that the superior guns and engineering skill of the French 
will enable them to take Puebla. If this opinion shall be verified, then it is, I 
think, quite certain that this city will be quickly and easily captured, though 
■every effort possible to a government so much in want of means as Mexico is 
now making to defend this capital. When the French army shall be in posses- 



4 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

sion of this city, and command the entire road to Vera Cruz, I see no possibility 
of ending the war for one or two years, unless the French choose to treat with 
the present government. Mexico will obstinately adhere to her present position. 

Within the last two weeks all intercourse between the Gulf and this city is 
forbidden by a decree of the supreme government, so that this despatch will go 
to Acapulco, on the Pacific, and from thence to New York by way of Panama. 

I must beg the department hereafter (and until this decree shall be revoked, 
or the route to Vera Cruz opened by the French) to send duplicate despatches — 
one by way of Havana and Vera Cruz, and the other by way of Panama and 
Acapulco to this city. 

# # # # # # * # * * * * 

Your obedient servant, 

THOS. CORWIN. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, 8fc., Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 



No. 64.] Department of State, 

Washington, January 2, 1863. 

Sir : Your despatch of November 19 (No. 36) has been received. The infor- 
mation which it gives, concerning the military situation in Mexico, agrees with 
the intelligence we obtain through the press, and, as I think, with the under- 
standing of that subject that is now accepted in Europe. 

Affairs have remained unchanged, but not without prospect of change and 
improvement. For the moment, two opposing armies seem to be fixed on the 
banks of the Rappahannock. There will be, before long, a change there. Our 
iron-clad fleet is at last afloat, and it will, I think, be heard from soon. Our 
two western armies, as well as that of General Banks, at New Orleans, are be- 
coming active. 

The proclamation of the President adds a new and important element to the 
war. Its probable results are doubtless exaggerated by one portion of the peo- 
ple, but not more than they are underestimated by another. Assuming, as I 
believe, its policy to be an unchangeable one, it is not at all to be doubted that, 
sooner or later, it will find and reach a weakness in every nook and corner of 
the insurrectionary region. The very violence with which it will probably be 
met will, after a little, increase its efficiency. 

I refrain from giving you information concerning the changing aspect of our 
foreign relations, because there is no certainty that, in the present condition of 
communication between this capital and the one in which you reside, my com- 
munications would be safe from visitation. I must be content, therefore, with 
saying that there is a manifest improvement of temper in Europe in regard to 
our unhappy controversy, and that with success of our armies, which may be 
reasonably expected, we shall probably encounter no foreign disturbance. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas Corwin, Es^. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 5 

Mr. Comoin to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract. ] 

No. 37.] Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, January 8, 1863. 

Sir : No act of the French government or troops has been known here, since 
my last despatch, whereby it can be certainly known what the ultimate designs 
of the Emperor are towards Mexico. 

The French forces are moving towards Puebla, on the two lines of Jalapa and 
Orizaba. It is now quite certain that they will attack Puebla before they 
march upon the capital. The Mexican officers here express the opinion that 
Puebla cannot be taken by the present force moving against it, while it is cer- 
tain that the tried and experienced commander of the French army, being well 
informed as to the defences of the place, has little, if any, doubt of success. 

THOMAS COR WIN. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Sfc. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 



No. 38.] Legation of the United States of America. 

Mexico, January 27, 1863. 

Sir : Since the date of my last despatch the French forces have made a for- 
ward movement. It is said they have a large train of siege guns for the purpose 
of bombarding Puebla. They are now within about thirty miles of the latter 
city. Puebla is said to be strongly fortified, and is defended by about 20,000 
men. We are led to suppose that General Forey is, in his own opinion, quite 
sure of success, since he proceeds with great caution, and so slowly, that some 
have supposed he wishes to reach this city without a decisive conflict with the 
Mexican troops. 

I have been told that the government here have received information, official 
or otherwise, to the effect that our government has permitted the French to 
purchase mules and wagons for the use of their campaign here, and has denied 
to Mexico a like privilege. I have made no inquiry of the government here 
touching this rumor, nor has anything been said about it by the secretary of for- 
eign affairs to me. It would be very necessary, if anything of this kind has 
been agitated at Washington, that I should have a copy of any letter to Mr. 
Romero on that subject. The Mexican cabinet are very suspicious of our par- 
tiality to the French. I wish to have in my possession, therefore, official infor- 
mation, which may give the true state of our dealings with both belligerents. 
Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS CORWIN. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, §c. 



Mr. Seioard to Mr. Corwin. 



No. 68.] Department of State, 

Washington, February 25, 1863. 

Sir: Your despatch of the 27th ultimo (No. 38) has been received. 
The printed document herewith enclosed, Senate Executive No. 24, of the 
present session, contains correpondence upon the subject of the purchase in the 



6 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

United Slates of munitions of war by the belligerents in Mexico, which will 
correctly inform you of the position taken by this government. 

Besides the information thus disclosed, it is understood that the Secretary of 
War has since placed such a construction upon the executive order as to make 
it applicable to certain articles much needed by the French in the prosecution of 
their hostilities in Mexico. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Thomas Oorwin, Esq. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 



No. 39.] Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, March 11, 1863. 

Sir : I have received your despatch No. 63, under date of December 19, 
1862, accompanied by copies of the note of Mr. Romero, charge d'affaires for 
Mexico, dated December 10, 1862, and your note in reply, dated December 15, ' 
1862, copies of which, agreeably to your instructions, I have communicated to 
his excellency Mr. Euente, secretary of foreign affairs for Mexico. 

The correspondence between Mr. Romero and the United States, concerning 
the exportation of arms by Mexico, and that of wagons and mules from New 
York by French agents, for the use of the French army in Mexico, had, as I 
am informed, been transmitted to the state department of Mexico some time be- 
fore the receipt of your despatch of December 19, 1862. 

This correspondence and the decision of the American government on the 
points it involves has, I am sure, caused quite an unfriendly feeling in the 
minds of the Mexican cabinet towards the United States. The decision of our 
government is regarded here in the very light in which Mr. Romero has en- 
deavored to place it — that is, as simply denying to Mexico rights which we 
concede to France ; and from this postulate they easily reach the conclusion 
that our government has disregarded, to the prejudice of Mexico, those obliga- 
tions which international law imposes upon neutral powers. However erroneous 
this view may be, I have no reason to expect that it will be changed. I have 
had no conference with the minister of foreign affairs on the subject, nor has he 
named it to me, either verbally or by written communication. As I regard your 
note to Mr. Romero as presenting all the reasons for the course our government 
has adopted, 1 shall not, of course, seek to transfer the controversy from Wash- 
ington to this city, but shall use all proper means, on proper occasions, to sat- 
isfy the Mexican authorities of the propriety of the course my government has 
deemed it proper to take. 

On the 9th day of February the Prussian minister, being about to leave 
Mexico, addressed to me a note, a copy of which I transmit herewith, requesting 
me to assume the protection of all French, Spanish, Prussian and Belgian sub- 
jects residing in Mexico. 

On the withdrawal of the French legation from Mexico, the duty of protecting 
the foreigners above named was committed to Baron Wagner, the Prussian 
minister. I thought proper, at that time, to decline the office and duties pro- 
posed, for the reasons assigned in my note to the Prussian minister under date 
of the 16th of February, a copy of which I send you herewith. 

On the 18th day of February I received from Baron Wagner another note, 
a copy of which I also enclose, proposing to commit the protection of the resi- 
dent subjects of the four powers named above to the whole foreign diplomatic 
corps remaining here. This note was dated the day before the departure of 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 7 

Baron Wagner, and was not received by me until the next morning, and afte 
he had left the city. I deemed it proper, in compliance with his request, to in- 
form the other members of the corps now here of it, and ask their opinion as 
to the course proper to be adopted by us. I have received notes on the sub- 
ject from the diplomatic representatives of the republics of Ecuador and Peru, 
and also from the consul general of Venezuela, copies of which are herewith 
transmitted. It will be observed that, at this time, no European power is rep- 
resented here by any agent above the rank of consul, nor have any of the Ameri- 
can republics a diplomatic representative here, except the United States and 
the three governments named above. Whilst I entertain no doubt that I might 
have accepted the powers proposed to be conferred upon me by the Prussian 
minister, without giving any just cause of offence to the government of Mexico, 
I thought such a step on my part imprudent, under existing circumstances, un- 
less the request to do so should first be made, through the proper channels, to 
the President of the United States, and his approval obtained and transmitted 
to me ; I also entertain as little doubt that the diplomatic corps, collectively, or 
any one of them, might, in a proper case, and in a respectful manner, interpose 
to protect the rights of any foreigner, without any express power given by the 
government to whom the allegiance of such foreigner might be due. This, it 
seems to me, would be my duty, since the same course of proceeding pursued 
towards a Prussian or Belgian subject resident here would, under like circum- 
stances, be adopted towards a citizen of the United States residing here. 

It will be seen by the copy of a letter from the state department of Mexico, 
under date of December 4, 1861, which is forwarded with this despatch, that 
when the French minister, on withdrawal from Mexico, committed the protec- 
tion of the French and Spanish subjects in Mexico to the minister of Prussia, 
the Mexican government accepted and approved that arrangement. It is notori- 
ous that the Prussian minister has exercised that power, without objection, up 
to the time of his withdrawing the Prussian legation, on the ISth of February, 
1863. 

On the 24th of February, 1863, and before I had informed the Mexican 
government of the correspondence of Baron Wagner with myself and the diplo- 
matic corps, I received the note, a copy of which is enclosed, from Mr. Fuente. 
To this I have, on the 7th day of March, 1863, given a reply, a copy of which 
is herewith transmitted. I shall act in conformity with the principles laid down 
in that note till otherwise instructed. I beg the early attention of the State 
Department to this whole subject. I have stated the reasons by which I was 
guided in declining the protection of the subjects of the four powers, as pro- 
posed by the Prussian minister, and have forwarded the opinions of the several 
members of the diplomatic corps respecting the collective protection of those 
subjects, as required by the note of Mr. Wagner of the 17th of February, 1863, 
upon all of which I ask the opinion of the President, and such instructions 
as may be deemed necessary for the regulation of my future action. 

The French forces are concentrated at a point about five miles from Puebla, 
but as late as yesterday had made no attack upon that city, nor had they made 
any forward movement in the direction of this place. 1 think, from all I can 
learn, that the Mexican army is qu'.te confident of victory should Puebla be 
attacked. 

I am your obedient servant, 

THOMAS COBWIN. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Sfc., Sfc, fyc. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

[Exhibit accompanying despatch No. 39.] 



March 11, 1863. 



1. Note of Prussian minister, requesting protection of the American legation for Prussia, 
French, Spanish, and Belgian subjects resident in Mexico. 

2. Reply to the same. 

3. Note of the Prussian minister, placing said subjects under the protection of the diplo- 
matic corps generally, and the American minister, as its dean, particularly. 

4. Note of American minister, calling a meeting of the diplomatic corps, to consider the 
request of the Prussian minister. 

5. Reply of charge d'affaires of Peru. 

6. Reply of charge d'affaires of Ecuador. 

7. Reply of the consul and confidential agent of Venezuela. 

B. 

1. Communication from minister of foreign affairs of Mexico, protesting against the 
acceptance of the powers proposed to be conferred by the Prussian minister upon the diplo- 
matic corps. 

2. Reply of the American minister. 



Reply of the official mayor of the department of foreign affairs of Mexico to note of the 
Prussian minister, informing the department that he had taken under his protection the 
French, Spanish, Italian, and Swiss subjects, resident in Mexico. 



A 1, No. 39. 
Mr. Wagner to Mr. Corwin. 

Prussian Legation, Mexico, February 9, 1863. 

SIR : Having solicited a temporary leave of absence, and my government having granted 
me permission to leave Mexico, I intend to start in a few days for Berlin. 

Your excellency is aware that the protection not only of the German, but also of the French, 
Spanish, and Belgian subjects, has been confided to this legation. 

I trust that during my absence the Prussian, Spanish, and Belgian consular authorities 
will be able to afford all due protection to their respective countrymen, as they have already 
done on many occasions ; and whilst I hope that their intercession in favor of the interests 
confided to them will avoid the necessity of often troubling your excellency, still I beg, at 
the same time, to take the liberty of recommending them, in case of need, to the kind and 
more effective protection of the United States legation, confident, as I am, that your excel- 
lency will be pleased to grant to the above-mentioned consulates, as well as to the French 
residents who may appeal to your excellency, such aid and assistance as may be possible 
under the present critical circumstances. 

The French consul, M. Morineau, having left Mexico with the imperial legation, M. Farine 
had previously been appointed his substitute, in order to take charge of the consular archives 
and to keep the civil register of marriages, births, &c, &c. The Mexican government had, 
at the time, been informed of this circumstance. 

I have the honor to remain, Avith the highest consideration, sir, your excellency's most 
obedient, humble servant, 

E. DE WAGNER. 

Hon. Thomas Corwin, 8fc, 8fc. 



A 2, No. 39. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Wagner. 

Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, February 16, 1863. 

Sir : The undersigned has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency's note, 
under date of the 9th instant, asking the undersigned to extend the diplomatic jn'otection of the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 9 

United States government to the French, Prussian, Spanish, and Belgian subjects resident in 
Mexico. The undersigned has given to the subject of your excellency's request his earnest 
attention, and is compelled, under existing circumstances, to decline the acceptance of the 
duties and responsibilities which a compliance with your excellency's request would impose 
upon him. Were such request addressed to the cabinet at Washington, and its objects ap- 
proved, and proper instructions given to the undersigned, he should then, and only then, 
deem it proper for him, in obedience to such instructions, to discharge, to the best of his 
ability, the duties they might impose. The undersigned has not, at this time and place, the 
means of searching for precedents, but his memory furnishes him with no instance where a 
minister of the United States has, under circumstances like the present, assumed to extend 
diplomatic protection to foreign citizens, resident within the territories of the government to 
which he is accredited, without express instructions to do so from the President of the United 
States. In regard to the proposed protection of the subjects of his Imperial Majesty the Em- 
peror of the French, there are reasons for the course the undersigned has adopted, which might 
not apply with equal force to the other nationalities specified in your excellency's note. The 
French empire and Mexico are at war. Between these two belligerent powers the govern- 
ment of the United States occupies a purely neutral position. Should the government of the 
United States assume the right and duty of protecting the subjects of one of the belligerent 
powers against the supposed wrongs to be inflicted upon them by the government of the other, 
it is easy to foresee that cases might arise which would tend strongly to disturb these peace- 
ful relations with one or both the belligerents, which it is the object of perfect neutrality to 
preserve inviolate. 

I have the honor, also, to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency's note of the 13th 
instant, relating to this subject, and enclosing correspondence relating thereto between your 
excellency and the minister of foreign relations for Mexico. The undersigned finds nothing 
in this last note and accompanying papers which, in his judgment, should affect the conclu- 
sion which he had come to in relation to the proposition contained in your excellency's note 
of the 9th instant. 

I avail myself of this (probably the last that may ever occur) occasion to renew to your 
excellency the assurance of my esteem. 

THOMAS CORWIN. 

His Excellency Baron E. D. Wagner, 

Minister of Prussia, Mexico. 



A 3, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, February 17, 1863. 

Mr. Envoy : Your excellency having considered it your duty, by your note of to-day, to 
refuse the protection I had solicited in favor of Prussian subjects, and Germans, French, 
Spanish, and Belgians, resident in Mexico, I now find myself wider the necessity of placing 
these foreigners under the friendly protection of the diplomatic corps, convinced that all its 
members, were it only from a sense of humanity, would not refuse, under the grave circum- 
stances which may present themselves, their aid and good offices to the many foreigners whose 
governments have not at this time representatives in Mexico. 

I pray your excellency will have the kindness to inform the representatives of the other 
American republics, who are now at this capital, of the very pressing instances I make to the 
diplomatic corps, and each of its members in particular, to lend their assistance in favoring pro- 
tection to foreigners who may address them directly, or to your excellency as their dean. 

As neither your excellency nor your colleagues will certainly ever ask anything unjust from 
the Mexican government, the latter has as much interest as the other American States, that 
it cannot be said that foreigners are intentionally abandoned to the discretion of the govern- 
ment, and without any diplomatic protection. I appeal, then, once more with earnestness, 
and in the most formal manner, to the feelings of humanity of your excellency, and of the 
other members of the diplomatic corps, in recommending the foreigners above mentioned to 
their special protection. 

Please accept, Mr. Envoy, the assurance of my high consideration, 

E»DE WAGNER. 

Hon. Thomas Cor win, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 

Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, and 

Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Mexico. 



10 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 



A 4, No. 39. 

Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, February 21, 1863. 
My Dear Colleague : On the day of the departure of the Prussian minister, but after he 
had left the city, I received from him a note, a copy of which I enclose herewith. 

In compliance with the request contained in the note of the Prussian minister, I have to ask 
that you will meet the members of the diplomatic corps, now in this city, at my rooms, (Calle 
Donceles, No. 23,) on Monday, the 23d instant, at 12 o'clock m., there and then to take into 
consideration the request contained in Mr. Wagner's note. 
I have the honor to be your friend and colleague, 

THOMAS COEWIN. 



A 5, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, February 21, 1863. 

My Worthy Colleague : I have had the honor to receive your esteemed communica- 
tion, by which you invite me to assist at a meeting of the diplomatic corps which is to take 
place at the United States legation on Monday at noon. 

I have no certainty of being in the city on the day and hour indicated, because I must go 
to-morrow into the country ; but made aware of the object of the meeting through the de- 
spatch of the minister of Prussia, which you were pleased to send me in copy, I cau make up 
my opinion on the matter, which is, that the diplomatic corps, to whose good offices the min- 
ister of Prussia has appealed in favor of European subjects who are at present without a rep- 
resentative in Mexico, would be able to render purely friendly private services, in accordance 
with the laws of the republic, in cases in which, in conformity with international law, diplo- 
matic action might be interposed, and especially when the Mexican government, by its cour- 
teous concessions, should accept such offices which do not legitimately spring from the mis- 
sion of representatives of nations, to whom the subjects treated of have no relations. 

Please so expound my opinion to the diplomatic corps, and accept the assurances of con- 
sideration and respect which I have the honor to subscribe myself your very respectful, hum- 
ble servant, 

MANUAL NICHOLAS COEPANCHO. 

His Excellency the Hon. Thomas Corwin, 

Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Sfc, Sfc, 8fc. 



A 6, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, February 24, 1863. 

Mr. Minister : As I proposed yesterday, I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your 
communication, dated 21st instant, in which you are pleased to send in copy that which was 
on the 17th addressed to you by his excellency Baron Wagner, placing, for reasons expressed 
therein, the Prussian, Eussian, French, Spanish, and Belgian subjects, resident in Mexico, 
under the protection of the diplomatic corps, and of each of its members. 

Confining myself, Mr. Minister, to the side note of his excellency Mr. Wagner, I think that 
the respective consuls of the subjects to whom it relates will suffice to protect the interests of 
their countrymen; and for those Europeans who, by force of circumstances, find themselves 
without representatives, either consular or diplomatic, it is to be expected that the enlightened 
Mexican cabinet will grant them the proper protection given to every peaceable foreigner. 
Moreover, I think I ought to say to your excellency that if any of the first, as well as the 
second, should come to me asking aid and assistance, I shall believe myself bound to inter- 
pose, as far as might be possible, my good and friendly offices with the Mexican executive 
government, which I hope will look with pleasure upon the frank statements I might make 
to it in respect of peaceful and inoffensive foreigners. 

By this occasion I have the honor to repeat to your excellency, my colleague, that I am 
your obedient servant, 

FEAN'CO DE P. PASTEE. 

His Excellency Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 

Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 11 



A 7, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 

Consulate and Confidential Agency of Venezuela, 

Tacubaya, February 27, 1863. 

My Esteemed Colleague : In consequence of what was agreed at the meeting we had 
on Monday, the 23d instant, to take into consideration the contents of the note dated the 17th 
last month, of Mr. Wagner, minister of Prussia, asking for the protection of the diplomatic 
corps for the foreigners to which the same refers, a copy of which you sent me, what was 
stated by yourself in the matter, and what was written by the absentee, Mr. Corpancho, 
charge des affaires of Peru, and also ignorant of what was written by M. Paster, represent- 
ative of Ecuador, my opinion on the subject is precisely analogous with yours, and that 
written by the representative of Pern. 

Deisn to accept the assurance of my distinguished consideration, 

8 NARCISO DE F. MARTIN. 

Hon. Thomas Corwin, Sfc, 8?c, &?c. 



B 1, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 



National Palace, 

Mexico, February 24, 1863. 

Mr. Minister : Upon leaving this capital, the Baron E. de Wagner, minister resident of 
his Majesty the King of Prussia, made known to the government of the federation that he had 
recommended to certain consular agents the protection of his countrymen, and other foreigners 
to whom he had dispensed it, by special commission of the respective governments, adding 
that for extraordinary cases he had placed them under the protection of the legation in your 
charge, the individuals and the consuls referred to. 

I beg you will please to see in annexed documents, No. 1, the pretension of Mr. Wagner 
on this matter, and in No. 2 the reasons for which the government of the republic could not 
accept a proceeding so irregular and so dangerous. Mr. Wagner made no reply to those 
reasons, nor sustained his contested resolution even. But on the second day of his journey 
there was received at the department the note which is translated in document No. 3 — a note 
in which Mr. Wagner, carrying to a high pitch his contempt of rules, usages and conven- 
tionalities, abandons the idea of all special protection, in order to place under the safeguard 
of the diplomatic corps and of the people of Mexico the foreigners who were under the pro- 
tection of the legation of Prussia. 

Doubtless it is unnecessary to controvert the irregular commission which at the outset that 
minister had confided to you from the moment that commission was not accepted by you, 
nor adhered to by the agent who had it to confer ; and although, in fact, he may have trans- 
ferred it to the diplomatic corps, I cannot for a single instant apprehend it would attain bet- 
ter issue, being, as it in truth is, improper, offensive to the government of Mexico, and in 
every view impracticable. I entertain a sincere and well-founded confidence that your ex- 
cellency will not lend your respected aid in giving authority to proceedings of this nature. 
But my duty and the orders of the president oblige me also to declare that in order to protect 
Prussian subjects, and other foreigners, to whom the Baron Wagner alludes in his said com- 
munications, the government of the republic will invariably maintain what I had the honor 
to state to the minister himself in the official letter I addressed to him, under date 12th of the 
current month. Until these affairs be not arranged in some other way, with the approval of 
the governments which are at peace with Mexico, the protection of which I speak has in its 
favor the spirit of the federal government, and means adequate to make it effectual in con- 
formity with international law and our own laws. 

In confiding foreigners, in the first place, to the loyalty and honor of the people of Mexico, 
Mr. Wagner does this nation the justice which he has so often denied to it; but Mexico does 
not need this testimony, nor accept it, when presented in derogation of the government she 
has chosen as the depository of her confidence and authority, because this government, which 
he affects to cast into oblivion, is the true representative of the nation in her foieign relations ; 
because on all sides it would be reputed a rude violation of the law of nations should a foreign 
minister make an innovation to the people, and not to the government near which he should 
be accredited ; and, in fine, because this omission, in the present case, would suggest the of- 
fensive presumption that the federal government does not look to the protection of foreigners, 
when the whole world inclusive is spectator to the contrary. Mr. Wagner, who in his note 
of the 9th instant, after indicating what he had resolved to do to assure the protection of Prus- 
sian subjects and other foreigners, said to me literally these words, " I flatter myself with the 



12 MEXICAN AFFAIRS 

hope that this measure will be no more than a simple formality, and that the foreigners re- 
ferred to, who may have recourse to the good disposition of your department, will have se- 
cured to them the direct protection of your excellency." 

I avail of the occasion to renew to your excellency the assurances of my most distinguished 
consideration. 

JA. DE LA FUENTE. 
His Excellency Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 

Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. 



B 2, No. 39. 

Mr. Corwin to Mr. Fuente. 

Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, March 7, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 24th of February, 
1863, communicating the substance of a correspondence between your excellency and Mr. 
Wagner touching the proposed protection of Belgian, French, Prussian, and Spanish sub- 
jects, resident in Mexico, by the diplomatic corps now in this city. 

I declined the protection of those subjects, when proposed to be clothed with that power by 
Mr. Wagner, not, however, because I conceived my assumption of such powers would give 
any just cause of complaint to the supreme government of Mexico, but on the ground that in 
the present relations of Mexico with European powers, and also with the government of the 
United States, I deemed it proper that the subject should be first submitted to the cabinet at 
Washington, and its instructions thereupon forwarded to me. 

I have deemed it my duty to inform the other members of the diplomatic corps of the request 
of Mr. Wagner. I have received from each of them their opinions on the subject, copies of 
which are accompanied herewith. 

I deem it due to that candor which should characterize the intercourse between the republics 
of Mexico and the United States to state to your excellency the course I deem it my duty to 
pursue on this subject until specific instructions shall be received by me from my govern- 
ment. 

If the action of the supreme government of Mexico should at any time be exerted upon 
any foreign subject or citizen to such extent as to place his life, liberty or property in danger, 
and where such action would, with equal propriety, be applied, under like circumstances, to 
an American citizen, I shall, if any such case unhappily arises, deem it my duty to offer to 
the supreme government such expostulation as, in my iudgment, the case may seem to re- 
quire. This I shall do, with the most perfect respect for the just powers of the supreme gov- 
ernment of Mexico, and with a well-founded confidence in its upright motives, and its desire 
to do justice to all foreigners, with such moderation as may consist with self-respect and the 
dignity and safety of the Mexican republic. In adopting this course, I am sure your ex- 
cellency will perceive that I am making no innovation upon the modern usage of civilized 
nations, nor doing anything which should interrupt the friendly relations which my govern- 
ment so earnestly desires to preserve with the Mexican republic. 

I take this occasion to renew to your excellency the assurance of my distinguished regard. 

THOS. CORWIN. 

His Excellency Senor A. DE LA Fuente, 8fc, Sfc, S^c, Mexico. 



C, No. 39. 

[Translation.] 
The Chief Clerk, Mexico, to Baron Wagner. 

National Palace, 

Mexico, December 4, 1862. 

The undersigned, chief clerk of the department of foreign relations, in charge of the office, 
has had the honor to receive and make report to the first magistrate of the republic of the note 
of M. E. de Wagner, minister resident of his Majesty the King of Prussia, of to-daj^'s date, in 
which he is pleased to advise that on parting with his excellency the minister plenipotentiary 
of his Majesty the Emperor of the French he invited his excellency the minister of Prussia to 
charge himself with the protection of the subjects and interests of his nation, as well as those 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 13 

of the Spaniards, Italians, and Swiss, confided till now to the French legation ; Mr. Wagner 
adding his hope that, notwithstanding the difficult circumstances of the moment, those sub- 
jects and their interests would be patronized by the government. 

In reply, the undersigned must say to his excellency that the existent emergencies do not 
hinder the Mexican government, in conformity with its principles of justice, and its sympa- 
thies for the civilized nations of Europe, from always watching over with the greatest solici- 
tude these subjects and those interests confided to the honor and hospitality of the Mexican 
nation which distinguishes and esteems peaceable and industrious foreigners, to whom the 
government has always desired to extend and will extend those guarantees which a civilized 
country can offer. 

Upon this understanding, and in courteous observance of the indication of Baron Wagner, 
proper orders are already issued to the respective authorities that, far from foreigners being 
molested in their persons or interests, they shall give them every protection, hoping they, in 
turn, will respond by their quietude and neutrality to the decided resolution the government 
holds that they be respected. 

The undersigned profits by this opportunity, &c. 

JUAN D. DIOS ARIAS. 

His Excellency Baron Wagner, 

Minister Resident of his Majesty the King of Prussia. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Cor win. 



No 72.] Department of State, 

Washington, April 18, 1863. 

Sir : I have submitted to the President your very interesting despatch of 
the 11th of March, (No. 39,) with its accompaniments. 

While the misapprehension by the government of Mexico of the proceedings 
of the United States in regard to the question of shipments for Mexico, which 
you describe, is regretted by the President, he does not suffer himself to doubt 
that it will give way before the clear explanations which have been made upon 
the subject to the representative of Mexico here, and of which you have been 
advised. 

Your proceedings with relation to the request of the late Prussian minister at 
Mexico, that you would assume the protection of subjects of the King of 
Prussia and of other European powers in that republic, during the suspension 
of the several European legations there, are approved by the President. The 
first responsibility of a minister is to practice fidelity to the interests of the 
state whose credentials he bears ; the second is the exercise of perfect good 
faith, respect, and courtesy to the government of the country to which he is 
accredited. A minister is not only at liberty, but he is morally bound, to render 
all the good offices he can to other powers and their subjects, consistently with 
the discharge of those principal responsibilities I have described. But it be- 
longs to the state where the minister resides to decide, in every case, in what 
manner and in what degree such good offices shall be rendered, and, indeed, 
whether they shall be tolerated at all. No abridgment of this sovereign right 
can be insisted upon, unless, indeed, the government of that state manifestly re- 
fuses to acknowledge or to give effect to some of the entirely admitted principles 
of morality recognized as constituting the basis of the laws of nature and the law 
of nations. Not only has this government no such complaint to make against 
Mexico, but, on the contrary, in all its iatercourse with that republic it has 
been impressed with the evidences of a high degree of virtue and enlighten- 
ment. That government deservedly enjoys not only the respect but the good 
wishes, and, so far as natural affections are allowable, the sympathy of the 
United States in its present unhappy embarrassments with foreign powers. 
The President, therefore, remits you, for your government in regard to the 
questions presented, to the rules you have prescribed to yourself, so long as 
they shall be satisfactory to the government of Mexico. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas Corwin, Esq. 



14 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 

No. 77.] Department of State, 

Washington, May 22, 1863. 

Sir : I enclose herewith a copy of a despatch, dated the 4th of March, from 
the United States consul at Matamoras, and a translation of the order referred 
to, which points out the practical discrimination in favor of the rebels in Texas, 
and of their illicit traffic across the frontier resulting from that order. 

I have to request you to invite the attention of the Mexican government to 
this cause of complaint, and to request the adoption of such measures as will 
correct the evil. 

The attention of Rear- Admiral Farragut has been called by the Secretary of 
the Navy to the suggestion of Consul Rice as to the importance of having a 
vessel-of-war in that quarter. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas Corwin, Esq., fyc„ Sf-c, fyc, Mexico. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 



No. 40.] Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, April 16, 1863. 

Sir : The American consul here having a leave of absence, the government 
here, as a special favor, have permitted me to send by him despatches to my 
government and letters to my friends. He will deliver them at Washington. 

Your despatches up to No. 66 have been received. A few days since I had 
an interview with the Mexican secretary of foreign relations. He expressed 
much satisfaction at having received from Mr. Romero a note saying that no 
trade from the United States would hereafter be permitted, in articles useful in 
war, to either France or Mexico. This, I think, will probably soothe the irri- 
tation occasioned by the correspondence with Mr. Romero, which you forwarded 
to me, and which was delivered by me to the state department here. 

The progress of the French war presents puzzles to all not in the cabinet 
secrets of the Emperor. It is conceded that he wishes to take Puebla. He has 
been before that city just one month. It has not surrendered. He has taken 
Fort St. Javier, said to be the weakest of those which protect the city, and, 
from that point, has made a lodgement within the walls, occupying six blocks in 
that suburb. According to our intelligence, any attempt made to advance has 
been repulsed; in one a company of zouaves was captured by the Mexican 
forces. 

If the French wish to capture Puebla, the reason why it is not done seems to 
be because, with their present force, they cannot. Re-enforcements from France, 
to the number of 3,000 or 4,000, lately landed at Vera Cruz, are now on their 
march to join the army at Puebla. It is surmised that General Forey waits for 
the arrival of these troops, and will, when they reach him, make a more vigor- 
ous assault. 

The Mexican people greedily devour every article of news from Europe. 
They hope a rupture will take place touching the further occupation of Rome 
by French troops, or by the Polish disturbances on the further occupation of 
Venetia by Austria ; but, as far as I can learn, their last and surest hope lies 
in the establishment of our old Union, which they believe would exert a con- 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 15 

trolling influence against the occupation of this country by any monarchy of 
Europe. 

I send duplicate despatches of those recently despatched by the Acapulco 
route, as the transit from here to Acapulco has proved hitherto unsafe. 
Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS CORWIN. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State XI. S. A., Washington, D. C. 



Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward. 
[Extract.] 



No. 41.] Legation of the United States of America, 

Mexico, May 1, 1S63. 

Qtp • ■ PP ^fc 5jc yfi. yp. jp 

In relation to public matters here, nothing has occurred to change the gen- 
eral aspects since my last letter to the department. The French army, under 
General Forey, has been before Puebla for forty-five days. It has obtained 
possession of one fort (St. Javier) and five or six blocks of the city, in the 
neighborhood of that fort. Small detachments of troops are reported, from 
day to day, to be fighting in houses and streets, hand to hand, with the Mexi- 
can troops under Ortega, within the city, whilst General Comonfort, with a 
force of about 15,000 of all arms, is at or near San Martin, a short distance 
from Puebla. The French forces under Forey are estimated at 22,000 effective 
men. It is a question with military men whether the French will ever take 
Puebla without further re-enforcements from France. Rumor, and perhaps ex- 
tracts from French papers, promise still further troops from France, but I 
believe there is not yet anything certainly known here as to these rumored re- 
enforcements. 

Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS CORWIN. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 



No. 78.] Department of State, 

Washington, June 8, 1863. 

Sir : Your despatch of May 1 (No. 41) has been received, and your proceed- 
ing in relation to the case of Ignacio Loperano, as therein reported, is approved 

A French steamer, which arrived at New York from Havana last week, sur- 
prised the country with the news of the surrender of Puebla, with the whole of 
the Mexican garrison, to the French army of occupation, after the defeat of 
General Comonfort in a movement which he was making for the relief of that 
town. Assuming this information to be true, the condition of affairs in Mexico 
is supposed to have become by this time exceedingly critical. 

I regret that I am unable to give you any definitive information concerning 
military events in our own country. You will have already learned of the 
active operations which have been instituted by General Grant and General 
Banks upon the Mississippi. We are awaiting the results with much anxiety 



16 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

The tone of the public mind is generally pure, and the confidence of the country 
in our financial system is perhaps the best possible evidence of the confidence 
of the people in the ultimate success of the government. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



Thomas Corwin, Esq., fyc, 8fc, Mexico. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 



No. 82.] Department of State, 

Washington, August 8, 1863. 

Sir : Your very important despatch of the 26th of June has been received. 
It confirms the information, otherwise received, that the French army has 
entered and occupied the capital of Mexico, and that a provisional government 
has been inaugurated there, under the protection of the imperial forces ; that 
the Mexican government, to which you were accredited, has retired to the city 
of San Luis Potosi, and established itself at that place ; and that the country 
is now divided between two governments, which still remain in hostile attitude. 
The President is inclined to approve the decision you made in declining, under 
the circumstances, the invitation of the Mexican government to leave the ancient 
capital and to repair to San Luis. 

What would be the most convenient and favorable position for the legation, 
with reference to the protection of American rights in Mexico, is a question that 
depends much on contingencies of war, which, though they may be imminent, 
cannot, at least at this distance from the theatre of conflict, be anticipated. It 
is not perceived how you could effectually assert those interests at the present 
moment by representations to the government at San Luis, which is cut off from 
communication with the legation, while, on the other hand, you will not be ex- 
pected to address yourself, under present circumstances, to the new provisional 
government which bears sway at the capital. 

The President fully appreciates the great and unwearied labors you have 
performed in your mission, and the circumstances which render a temporary 
relief from them desirable on your part. He has thought that probably the 
present juncture, when things in regard to the future of Mexico are depending 
on dispositions and events there, with which a minister of a foreign and friendly 
power cannot lawfully interfere, may, perhaps, be the most suitable one for the 
allowance of the indulgence which you have asked. But he desires to leave 
this point to your own better-informed discretion. You will, therefore, have 
leave of absence, to begin at such time as you may think proper after this com- 
munication reaches you, and may return to the United States to confer with 
this department, and to await the further directions of the President. You will 
make such arrangements for the custody of the archives, and the transaction of 
the mere routine duties of the legation during your absence, as shall seem 
expedient. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



Thomas Corwin, Esq., Sfc, Sfc., Mexico. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. 



No. 88.] Department of State, 

Washington, December 23, 1863. 
Sir: Your despatch of October 26 (No. 47) has been received and submitted 
to the President, and you will accept his grateful acknowledgments for the very 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 17 

interesting information and judicious observations which it contains concerning 
the present condition of Mexico. 

In reply to an inquiry contained in your despatch, I have to inform you that, 
in the absence of further instructions from this department, you will be expected 
to remain in the same relations as now towards the government of the United 
States of Mexico. 

If for any cause your residence in the city of Mexico shall become intolerable 
or seriously inconvenient, you will be at liberty to resort to any other part of the 
country, or to return to the United States. No contingency is now anticipated 
in which you will be expected to address yourself to any other government than 
the one to which you are accredited. 

I give you, for your information, a copy of an instruction that has been given 
to Major General Banks since his occupation of Brownsville, in Texas. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas Corwin, Esq., fyc, 8fc., Sfc. 



Department of State, Washington, November 23, 1863. 

General : I have received, and have submitted to the President, your three despatches ot 
the 6th, 7th, and 9th, respectively. 

I have great pleasure in congratulating you upon your successful landing and occupation 
upon the Rio Grande, which is all the more gratifying because it was effected at a moment 
of apparently critical interest in the national cause. 

You have already found that the confusion, resulting from civil strife and foreign war in 
Mexico, offers seductions for military enterprise. I have, therefore, to inform you of the 
exact condition of our relations towards that republic at the present time. We are on terms 
of amity and friendship, and maintaining diplomatic relations, with the republic of Mexico. 
We regard that country as the theatre of a foreign war, mingled with civil strife. In this 
conflict we take no part, and, on the contrary, we practice absolute non-intervention and 
non-interference. In command of the frontier, it will devolve on you, as far as practicable 
consistently with your other functions, to prevent aid or supplies being given from the United 
States to either belligerent. 

You will defend the United States in Texas against any enemies you may encounter there, 
whether domestic or foreign. Nevertheless, you will not enter any part of Mexico, unless it 
be temporarily, and then clearly necessary for the protection of your own lives against 
aggression from the Mexican border. You can assume no authority in Mexico to protect 
citizens of the United States there, much less to redress there wrongs or injuries committed 
against the United States or their citizens, whether those wrongs or injuries were committed 
on one side of the border or the other. If consuls find their positions unsafe on the Mexican 
side of the border, let them leave the country, rather than invoke the protection of your 
forces. These directions result from the fixed determination of the President to avoid any 
departure from lawful neutrality, and any unnecessary and unlawful enlargement of the 
present field of war. But, at the same time, you will be expected to observe military and 
political events as they occur in Mexico, and to communicate all that shall be important for 
this government to understand concerning them. It is hardly necessary to say that any 
suggestions you may think proper to give for the guidance of the government in its relations 
towards Mexico will be considered with that profound respect which is always paid to the 
opinions which you express. 

In making this communication, I have endeavored to avoid entering into the sphere of 
your military operations, and to confine myself simply to that in which you are in contact, 
with the political movements now going on in Mexico. 
I am, general, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Major General N. P. Banks, 

Commanding the Department of the Gulf, Brownsville, Texas. 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 2 



18 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



No. 2. — Shipment of arms to Mexico. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Nov. 22, 1862. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Eomero, (with enclosures) Nov. 24, 1862. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Dec. 10,1862. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero Dec. 15, 1862. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Dec. 20,1862. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero Jan. 7, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Jan. 14, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero Jan. 17, 1863. 

Mr. Rankin to Mr. Seward Jan. 14,1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Rankin, (with enclosure) Jan. 15, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Jan. 20, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero Jan. 21 , 1863. 

General Canby to Mr. Seward _ Feb. 17, 1864. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Rouiero Feb. 19,1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward Feb. 20,1864. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Senear d. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, November 22, 1862- 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to inform you that my government has 
given me instructions to communicate to that of the United States that the Mexi- 
can government has reliable information to the effect that the chief of the French 
expedition, which is invading the republic, has sent emissaries to New Orleans 
and New York to purchase mules and wagons for transporting the cannon, war 
materials, and provisions to the interior of Mexico. My government thinks that 
if such purchases should be realized, the neutrality to which they are bound 
would be violated by the sellers, this being the position which the government 
of the United States has desired to take in the war which the Emperor of the 
.French is waging against my country. It is not doubted, in the opinion of my 
government, that such a sale would be a direct assistance to one of the belliger- 
ents, since it would be given to its army, which necessarily would use it in acts 
of hostility. In view of the preceding considerations, the government of 
.Mexico has instructed me to solicit from that of the United States that, if it 
should not already have been done, it issue the orders it may deem proper to 
prevent the effects indicated from leaving the ports of the United States pur- 
chased for the use of the army now invading Mexico. Before these instructions 
had .reached me I had learned, in a most reliable manner, that the emissaries of 
the French destined to New York had arrived some days since at that port, and 
were busy in purchasing the effects which they came to procure. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, November 24, 1SG2. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 22d 
instant, informing me that you have been instructed by your government to make 
known to that of the United States that the commanding general of the Frencli 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 19 

expedition now invading the territory of Mexico has sent emissaries to the cities 
of New Orleans and New York for the purchase of mules and wagons with 
which to transport his cannon, war materials, munitions, and provisions to the 
interior of Mexico ; that the government of Mexico thinks that citizens of the 
United States would, in making sales of these articles to said emissaries, violate 
the neutrality they are bound to observe towards Mexico, and that the govern- 
ment of Mexico does not doubt that such sales would be the giving of direct 
assistance to the French army, which would use them in acts of hostility to- 
wards vour government ; that prior to your receipt of said instructions, you had 
been reliably informed that these French emissaries had arrived at New York, 
and were there busily engaged in the purchase of the articles they came to pro- 
cure ; and, finally, that in view of these facts the government of Mexico desires 
that this government shall issue, if it should not already have done so, the proper 
orders to prevent the effects mentioned from leaving the ports of the United 
States, they being purchased for the use of the French invading army. 

In reply, I have the honor to inform you that, prior to the receipt of your 
note aforesaid, information of a similar nature had reached this department 
through the consul general of the United States at Havana, and that the matter 
had been submitted to the consideration of the Secretary of the Treasury, a 
copy of whose reply I herewith enclose, together with the extracts from the 
authorities in the case ; and from which it appears that no intervention with the 
mission of the French officers is contemplated by the Treasury Department, to 
whom the subject more immediately appertains. 

This decision appears to be in conformity with precedents, and with the rules 
of international law governing the case. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Matias Romero. Sfc, iyc , Sfc. 



Enclosures with Mr. Reward's note, Kovemlcr 24. 

Treasury Department, November 20, 1862. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo, cover- 
ing the despatch of the consul general of Havana concerning the departure of two officers 
of the French army for New York to purchase supplies for that army in Mexico. 

I send you enclosed authorities in this case, collected for me by Mr. Marcellus Bailey, of 
the office of the Solicitor of the Treasury, which may be acceptable. 

No intervention with the mission of these officers is contemplated by me. 
With great respect, 

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. 
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State. 

Instructions to collectors of customs, issued by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, 

August 4, 1793. 

" The purchasing and exporting from the United States, by way of merchandise, articles 
commonly called contraband, being generally warlike instruments and stores, is free to all 
parties at war, and is not to be interfered with. If our own citizens undertake to carry them 
to any of these parties, they will be abandoned to the penalties which the laws of war author 
ize." — {Am. State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. \,p. 141.) 

Mr. Webster to Mr. Thompson, July 8, 1842. 

"It is not the practice of nations to undertake to prohibit their own subjects from traffick 
ing in articles contraband of war. Such trade is carried on at the risk ot those engaged in 
it mrder the liabilities and penalties prescribed by the law- of nations or particular treaties."- — 
(Webster's Works, vol. 6, p. 452.) 



20 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Webster's instructions of July 8, 1842, cited in Gardner's Inst., American International 

Law, p. 552. 

"That if American merchants, in the way of commerce, had sold munitions of war to 
Texas, the government of the United States, nevertheless, were not bound to prevent it, and 
could not have prevented it without a manifest departure from the principles of neutrality." 

President's message, 1st session 34th Congress. — Franklin Pierce, President; William L. 

Marcy, Secretary of State. 

"The laws of the United States do not forbid their citizens to sell to either of the belligerent 
powers articles contraband of war, or take munitions of war or soldiers on board their private 
ships for transportation ; and although, in so doing, the individual citizen exposes his prop- 
erty or person to some of the hazards of war, his acts do not involve any breach on national 
neutrality, nor of themselves implicate the government." — (Ex. Doc, 1855-56, vol. 1, Pt. 
I, p. 6.) 

Mr. Webster to Mr. Thompson. 

" As to advances, loans, or donations of money or goods made by individuals to the gov- 
ernment of Texas or its citizens, the Mexican government hardly needs to be informed that 
there is nothing unlawful in this so long as Texas is at peace with the United States, and 
that these are thiDgs which no government undertakes to restrain." — (Ex. Doc, 27th Cong., 
2d Sess., 1841-'42, vol. 5, Doc 266.) 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 



Mexican Legation in the United States, 

Washington, December 10, 1862. 

Mr. Secretary: The note which you were pleased to address to me under 
date of the 24th of November last past, and the documents thereto annexed, 
have informed me that the honorable Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States does not propose to interfere with the purchase of articles contraband of 
war which the officers of the French army invading Mexico may make in the 
United States, and who have come to obtain the means of transportation for 
the use of the same army, and to whom I alluded in the note which I had the 
honor to address you on the 22d day of November aforesaid. It is not possible 
for me to refrain from expressing the pain and surprise caused me on learning 
that the decision of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury was sustained by 
yourself, for, in truth, it is very different from that which I thought myself enti- 
tled to expect. Assuming, as my government has assumed, that that of the 
United States is a neutral in the war which the Emperor of the French is 
waging against Mexico, it was natural to hope that if, in consequence of such 
a condition, this government did not aid one of the belligerents, it would act in 
the same manner towards the other, in which it would do no more than to com- 
ply faithfully with the obligations inherent to neutrality. It is very far from 
my purpose to teach the government of the United States what these obliga- 
tions are ; but I, however, deem it my duty to make known to it my opinion 
and that of my government : that it is incompatible with them to permit one of 
the belligerent armies to provide itself, in its territory, with whatsoever it may 
require to carry on hostilities. 

Vattel, speaking at paragraph 104, chapter VII, book III, of his " Law of Na- 
tions," upon the obligations of neutrality, says that " as long as a neutral nation 
wishes securely to enjoy the advantages of her neutrality, she must in all things 
show a strict impartiality towards the belligerent j>owers." Examining further- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 21 

more in what the impartiality consists which a neutral power is obliged to observe, 
he says that " it solely relates to war, and includes two articles : 1. To give no 
assistance when there is no obligation to give it; nor voluntarily to furnish troops, 
arms, ammunition, or anything of direct use in war. I do not say ' to give 
assistance equally,' but ' to give no assistance ;' for it would be absurd that a 
state should at one and the same time assist two nations at war with each other; 
and besides, it would be impossible to do it with equality. The same things, 
the like number of troops, the like quantity of arms, of stores, &c, furnished. 
in different circumstances, are no longer equivalent succors." 

It is therefore evident that, according to these principles, if the government 
of the United States permits the French army to take from this country what- 
ever it may require to carry on hostilities against Mexico, it does not act with 
the impartiality which its character of neutral imposes upon it, even though it 
should concede to Mexico the same privilege. Among the authorities which 
served as a foundation for the honorable Secretary of the Treasury for adopting 
the decision referred to are found, in the first place, and which I consider as the 
principal one, the instructions which Mr. Alexander Hamilton communicated on 
the 4th of August, 1793, to the collectors of customs of the United States, in 
consequence of the proclamation which President Greorge Washington had issued 
on the 22d day of April preceding, recognizing the state of Avar then existing 
between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the Netherlands on the 
one part, and France upon the other, and declaring the neutrality of the United 
States in the same. 

In these instructions Mr. Hamilton said (American State Papers, series of 
Foreign Affairs, vol. 1, page 141) that "the purchasing within and exporting 
from the United States, by way of merchandise, articles commonly called con- 
traband, should not be interfered with ;" and, according to this principle, the pur- 
chase and exportation of the effects purchased by the French officers should not 
be permitted, inasmuch as they have not been made by way of merchandise, 
but, on the contrary, for the immediate and direct use of a belligerent army. It 
is well understood that the government of the United States would not be will- 
ing to prevent the sale of such articles to French merchants who would purchase 
them to speculate upon them by selling them to a third power, or, perhaps, to 
their own government, for the fear that the latter should occur, ought not to au- 
thorize a general prohibition, but that it should extend these principles to the 
purchase of the articles referred to by officers of the French army, and for the 
immediate use of the same army, is a matter which eannot be conceived of, be- 
cause it is equivalent to laying aside neutrality, and to open the door to all 
nations that be at war, in which the United States are not a party, in order that, 
in exchange for a small profit, they may come to provide themselves here with 
whatever they may require to carry on hostilities. 

The authorities of Mr. Webster, which are cited in the document annexed to 
the communication of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury of the 20th 
of November last past, of which you are pleased to transmit me a copy, are in 
contrariety with the instructions of Mr. Hamilton, and there cannot be given to 
them, in my opinion, the same weight as to the latter, for the first are fragments 
of communications addressed by Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State of the 
United States, to Mr. Thompson, minister of the United States in Mexico, to 
justify the government of the United States from the complaints which that of 
Mexico made to it for the moral and material support which the first gave, at 
that time, to the insurgents of Texas. It is known that all the sympathies of 
the administration then existing were on the side of the insurgents, which caused 
it to encourage them in every way, in order to accomplish the enterprise in 
which they were engaged, while, at the same time, the United States called 
themselves neutrals in the contest. The principles laid down then by Mr. 
Webster had for their object to reconcile that neutrality with the aid given to 



22 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

the insurgents ; and assuredly, if the government of the United States should 
examine them now, when the circumstances are different, and when the admin- 
istration is animated with a spirit of greater justice, it would not sustain them, 
nor would it be willing that foreign nations should adopt them as a basis in their 
relations with the United States, as it does not appear disposed to sustain, in 
this emergency, the principles which governed it then to recognize the inde- 
pendence of Texas much earlier than Mexico was disposed to make such a recog- 
nition. 

There is an instance of a similar case in which the United States proceeded 
in accordance with the principles of Vattel, and the reason which they had for 
it holds good with the same force in the present case Mr. Henry Wheaton, in 
the 16th paragraph of chapter III, of part IV of his " Elements of International 
Law," referring to the principles of Vattel, which I have already cited, says : 
" These principles were appealed to by the American government when its neu- 
trality was attempted to be violated on the commencement of the European war 
of 1793, by arming and equipping vessels and enlisting men within the ports of 
the United States by the respective belligerent powers to cruise against each 
other. It was stated that if the neutral power might not, consistently with its 
neutrality, furnish men to either party for their aid in war, as little could either, 
enrol them in the neutral territory." 

Applying this reasoning to the present case, it follows that the United States 
cannot, because of its neutrality, give to France arms, munitions of war, and 
other articles contraband of war, neither can it permit that the French army 
shall come to take them from the neutral territory. 

Great Britain, which adopted the American doctrine in that which relates to 
the enlistment of troops in its territory by a belligerent power, has been more 
consistent, for it also adopted the consequences which are inferred from this 
principle ; and when it declares itself neutral in the wars between other powers, 
it accompanies this declaration with the prohibition that the belligerents shall 
not supply themselves in their ports with articles contraband of war, unless that, 
by special treaties, she is under the obligation of extending them to both or 
either of the belligerents. 

President Franklin Pierce, in his message to the thirty-fourth Congress of 
the United States, of the 1st of September, 1855, which is another of the 
authorities cited by the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, whilst he 
considers as a violation of the neutrality of the United States the pretensions 
of any of the European powers then allied against Russia to enrol troops in the 
territories of these same States, follows the doctrine of Mr. Webster respecting 
the sale of articles contraband of Avar made by its citizens to any one of the 
belligerent powers. President Pierce forgot the condition that the sale be made 
by way of merchandise, considered as indispensable by Mr. Hamilton to make 
it lawful. He also says that there is no law prohibiting to the citizens of the 
United States the sale of articles contraband of war to either of the belligerent 
parties ; but if there be no such secondary law, there exists the natural ten- 
dency of the law of nations, which imposes such a prohibition upon the neutral 
powers as one of the circumstances inherent to neutrality. If the government 
should extend to Mexico the same principles which govern it in its relations 
with France, as little satisfactory as such conduct would be, because it would 
thus be to abandon neutrality and to furnish to the French army the means of 
transportation, without which it would have been obliged to remain inactive 
until these could arrive from Europe, giving time to the Mexican government to 
organize a more vigorous resistance, yet it would not have been to so great an 
extent as it was on refusing to Mexico the same facilities which are conceded to 
France. 

At the commencement of February of the present year the Mexican consul at 
New York informed me that several merchants of that port were sending to Vera 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 23 

Cruz vessels laden with provisions and other articles for the consumption of the 
allied army, which was then in that city. At a conference with which you favored 
me on the 13th of the said month of February I had the honor to inform you 
of these facts, and I took the liberty to suggest to you that, if the United States 
held the character of a neutral in the differences between Mexico and the allies, 
the federal government should forbid the exportation of articles contraband of 
war intended to give aid directly to one of the belligerents. You were pleased 
to reply to me that the United States did not recognize a state of war existing 
between Mexico and the allies. As there had been, you said, no declaration of 
war, they could not, for the same reason, be governed in their conduct by the rules 
of neutrals, for up to that time this government considered Mexico and the allies 
as friends, and not as belligerents. In view of such reasonable explanations, I 
desisted from my first suggestion, and, as was natural, I understood that the 
government of the United States would not object that Mexico should take 
from this country what she might need whilst the state of things then existing 
should continue ; and provided that Mexico should be permitted to make use of 
this right, I would make no opposition to the exercise of the same being granted 
to the allies. 

Shortly afterwards the circumstance arose that Mexico purchased some arms 
in New York, which the agent commissioned to make this purchase desired to 
ship to a Mexican port which the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury had 
closed to the commerce of the United States, in violation of the rights of Mex- 
ico and in contravention of the stipulations of the treaty of friendship, naviga- 
tion, and commerce, which binds the United States to Mexico, as I had the 
honor to make known to you in the notes which I addressed you on the 23d of 
July and the 10th of September, 1861. The circumstance that, in accordance 
with the instructions of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, his permit 
was necessary, in order that the custom-house of New York might clear 
vessels to the said port, was the only cause of my application to the Treasury 
Department, soliciting extra officially this permit. Upon doing so I determined 
simply to make known that these arms were for Mexico and not for the insur- 
gents of the United States, believing that this would be sufficient for the honorable 
the Secretary of the Treasury to grant the proper clearance. The aspect of 
the affairs of Mexico had then changed with respect to that in which it was in 
February last. The difficulties existing were then no longer between Mexico 
and the European allies, but between Mexico and France ; and although the war 
existed in fact, it had not been declared, neither did I know that such a declara- 
tion, which had not been made, had been communicated to the government of 
the United States, nor that this government had taken official notice of such a 
war, which had begun like a filibustering enterprise, in contravention of the 
most trivial principles of the law of nations, and least of all did I know that 
this government intended to remain neutral in this war. Had I known this I 
should not have dared to inform it of a transaction which had been entered into 
to the loss of its rights as a neutral, nor much less to ask it to authorize it in 
violation of the duties which its neutrality imposed upon it. My duty would 
have been to advise the agent who came to purchase the arms to go and seek 
them elsewhere, for here they could not be obtained without loss to the rights 
of the United States, which I have ever been disposed to respect in the most 
scrupulous manner. The honorable the Secretary of the Treasury at first 
showed himself willing to concede the permit asked for ; he asked me for the 
list of the effects which were to be sent to Mexico, and, upon showing it to him, 
it appeared to him that the number, 36,000 muskets, was too great a one, and 
he said to me that he would only give the permit for exporting them in case 
that the honorable the Secretaries of the Navy and War should make no objec- 
tion to the exportation of the arms. The honorable the Secretary of the Navy 



24 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

made none, and the Secretary of War said that " he refused to relax the order 
previously issued forbidding the exportation of arms." 

Neither the collector of the customs of New York, nor the honorable the 
Secretary of the Treasury, seemed to be aware of the order to which the honorable 
the Secretary of War referred ; but his decision in the present case was sufficient 
for them to refuse in the most positive and absolute manner the clearance of the 
muskets purchased by Mexico. In vain did I endeavor to show to both the 
honorable Secretaries that these arms were Prussian muskets, flint-locks, subse- 
quently altered to percussion locks, and of such a quality that the army of the 
United States would never use them. All my efforts were in vain ; and the im- 
pression which was left to me, as the result of my exertions, was that the gov- 
ernment of the United States had opposed the departure of the arms, not because 
it believed that the occasion might arise when it would need them for its army — 
inasmuch as there was in the stores of New York a larger number and of a very 
superior quality — but to avoid complications with France, which, it was feared, 
would be consequent upon the clearance of the arms to a Mexican port. I was 
finally confirmed in this opinion upon learning that subsequently to my said 
exertions the honorable Secretary of the Treasury expressly notified the col- 
lector of the custom-house of New York on no account to clear the arms afore- 
said, and that the same custom-house has cleared, subsequently to these exer- 
tions, arms to ports which are not Mexican ports. I felt, therefore, that there had 
not been towards me the sufficient frankness to tell me the true cause why 
the clearance of the arms purchased by Mexico was denied, which would 
have saved me many steps ; for, from the moment it should have been communi- 
cated to me that the United States were neutrals in the war between France and 
Mexico, and that the clearance of these arms was not compatible with the duties 
which their neutrality imposed upon them, I should have considered the affair 
as concluded, conceding all the reason to this government. It is, therefore, easy 
to understand how great was my surprise upon learning that when France came 
to purchase articles contraband of war in this country, when it has made of it 
the base whence it supplies its invading army, in a war in which I had been made 
to understand that the United States were neutrals, the honorable Secretary 
of the Treasury, relying upon authorities in my opinion totally insufficient, 
should have conceded to France the same thing which he so peremptorily refused 
to Mexico. For Mexico it is the same thing that to it should be denied what is 
permitted to France, by order of the honorable Secretary of War, or by the 
decision of any other honorable Secretary; she cannot enter into the examina- 
tion of the reasons which may have caused such an order, and she can only see 
the palpable and incontrovertible fact that, whilst to France it is permitted to 
supply herself in the market of the United States with whatever she requires to 
carry on her war against Mexico, without excepting the articles contraband of 
war, to Mexico is prohibited the exportation of the only article which she needed, 
and the only one she had purchased in this country. As I am considering 
the question under the point of view of the right only, and as I understand that 
the United States are neutrals in the war between Mexico and France, I refrain 
from entering into other consideraiions which would present the conduct of the 
United States in a light still more unfavorable. The gravity of the present 
case, which affects so directly the rights and interests of Mexico, causes me to 
believe that so soon as my government shall be informed of what has occurred 
in this respect, it will send me precise instructions by which to abide. 

Then I shall again have the honor to communicate with you upon this same 
affair. For the present, I have only taken the liberty to lay before you the 
considerations which precede, because I do not desire that my silence be taken 
as an indication of acquiescence in the determination contained in your note, to 
which I reply. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 25 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
very distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 
Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, 8fc. 



Mr. Seivard to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, December 15, 1862. 
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to 
acknowledge the reception of the note which A\ r as addressed to him by his 
excellency Mr. M. Romero, charge d'affaires of the republic of Mexico, on the 
10th of December instant, in which Mr. Romero states his objections to the 
decision of this government which permits the clearance of vessels from New 
York, carrying cargoes of certain wagons and other merchandise purchased and 
designed, as Mr. Romero says, for the use of the French forces in Mexico. 
Mr. Romero assumes that this decision manifests partiality on the part of this 
government towards France. 

The undersigned has the honor to inform Mr. Romero that the trade of the 
United States is regulated by treaties and laws which are equal in regard to 
France and to Mexico, and to all other nations, without any exceptions, whether 
they are mutually at peace or engaged in war; that whatever merchandise is 
allowed to be cleared for or on account of French subjects or of the French 
government, is equally allowed to be cleared for the citizens or for the govern- 
ment of Mexico, and for all other nations. 

Mr. Romero builds his argument upon the fact that clearances of arms said to 
be designed for the use of the Mexican government were denied in its war with 
France, while clearances of wagons designed for the use of the French govern- 
ment in the same war are allowed. 

Mr. Romero is respectfully informed that prohibition of the shipment of arms, 
in the case referred to, was a general prohibition, including all other nations as 
well as Mexico, on the ground of the military necessities of the United States, 
which, while engaged in suppressing a formidable insurrection, cannot consent 
that fire-arms of any kind shall be sent out of the country as merchandise. 

For these reasons — first, because the government may need all such arms; 
and, secondly, that they might fall into the hands of the insurgents — neither the 
French, who are at war with Mexico, nor any other nation which is at peace 
with the United States, no matter what its condition or its situation, could now 
be allowed to export arms of any sort from this country. Mr. Romero implies, 
probably with truth, that wagons are as necessary and will be as useful to the 
French as fire-arms would be to the Mexicans. But the pertinency of the argu- 
ment is not apparent, insomuch as the shipment of arms is denied to Mexico on 
the ground, not of want of them on her part as a belligerent, but on the ground 
of the military situation of the United States ; and, on the other hand, the 
wagons are allowed to be shipped, not on the ground that France wants them as 
a belligerent, but on the ground that the military situation of the United States 
does not demand an inhibition. 

The republic of Mexico enjoys the sincere friendship and good will of the 
United States, and they lament the war which has arisen between that re- 
public and France. They are not, however, a party to the war, and since 
it has unhappily occurred, they can act in regard to it only on the principles 
which have always governed their conduct in similar cases. The trade of the 
United States, according to these principles, is left free to both nations, just as 
if they were at peace with each other, and no restrictions are imposed upon it to 
the favor or prejudice of either nation. 



26 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

The argument of the Secretary of the Treasury, which has been already sub- 
mitted to Mr. Romero, renders it unnecessary to say more to elucidate the settled 
and traditional policy of the country. It is not easy to see how that policy 
could be changed so as to conform to the views of Mr. Romero, without destroy- 
ing all neutral commerce whatsoever. If Mexico shall prescribe to us what 
merchandise we shall not sell to French subjects, because it may be employed 
in military operations against Mexico, France must equally be allowed to dic- 
tate to us what merchandise we shall allow to be shipped to Mexico, because it 
might be belligerently used against France. Every other nation which is at 
war would have a similar right, and every other commercial nation would be 
bound to respect it as much as the United States. Commerce, in that case, in- 
stead of being free or independent, would exist only at the caprice of war. 

The undersigned, in thus expressing to Mr. Romero the views of this govern- 
ment upon the question which Mr. Romero has submitted, does not at all desire 
to conclude him from the further presentation of the subject, which he promises 
to make after he shall have received the instructions upon the subject from his 
government. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to offer to Mr. Romero a re- 
newed assurance of his high consideration. 



Senor Don Matias Romero, fyc., fyc., Sfc. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. J 



Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, December 20, 1862. 

The undersigned, charge d'affaires of the United Mexican States, has had 
the honor to receive the note which the honorable William H. Seward, Secre- 
tary of State of the United States of America, was pleased to address to him 
on the 15th of the present month, in reply to the communication of the under- 
signed of the 10th instant, in which he stated the reasons which caused him to 
consider as partial in favor of France the conduct followed by the government 
of the United States in permitting the emissaries of the French army to pur- 
chase and export from the ports of this country whatever that army requires to 
carry out the military operations against Mexico, in which it is engaged, while 
at the same time the same privilege has been denied to the Mexican republic. 

In his note referred to, the honorable Secretary of State is pleased to inform 
the undersigned that " the trade of the United States is regulated by treaties 
and laws which are equal in regard to France and to Mexico, and to all other 
nations, without any exception, whether they are mutually at peace or engaged in 
war." The undersigned was not unaware that the United States have the obliga- 
tion to regulate their trade with friendly nations, by the stipulations to which 
they have bound themselves in the treaties Avhich bind them to these nations, and 
he precisely had these considerations present when he wrote his note of the 10th 
instant, and in it he only proposed to himself to exact from the government of 
the United States the fulfilment of a duty which the United States contracted 
towards Mexico, in the treaty of the 5th of April, 1831, at present in force 
between both powers. The obligation imposed by said treaty upon the two 
contracting governments appeared so clear to the undersigned that he did not 
deem it necessary to remind the honorable Secretary of State of the articles in 
which it is contained ; but inasmuch as he is informed that the trade of the 
United States is regulated by treaties, he deems it his duty to be more precise 
upon asking the fulfilment of the stipulations of these treaties. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 27 

Article 16th of the treaty of the 5th of April stipulates that " it shall he law- 
ful for the citizens of the United States of America and of the United Mexican 
States, respectively, to sail with* their vessels with all manner of security and 
liberty, no distinction being made who are the owners of the merchandise laden 
thereon, from any port to the places of those who now are or may hereafter 
be at enmity with the United States of America or with the United Mexican 
States. It shall likewise be lawful for the aforesaid citizens, respectively, to 
sail with their vessels and merchandise, before mentioned, and to trade with the 
same liberty and security from the places, ports, and havens of those who are 
enemies of both or either party without any opposition or disturbance what- 
soever, not only directly from the places of the enemy, before mentioned, to 
neutral places, but also from one place belonging to an enemy to another place 
belonging to an enemy, whether they be under the jurisdiction of the same gov- 
ernment or under several." 

So ample a liberty of trading is found shortly after wisely restricted in arti- 
cle 18th, which says : " This liberty of commerce and navigation shall extend 
to all kinds of merchandise, excepting those only which are distinguished by the 
name of contraband of war." ####*# 

If it then appears that the articles purchased in the United States by the 
emissaries of the French army, and carried to Vera Cruz in vessels of the United 
States, are of the character of those called contraband of war, it is indubitable 
that the commerce and navigation of such articles are unlawful, agreeably to 
the stipulations of the treaty which binds the United States to Mexico. 

The articles referred to have consisted principally of mules and wagons, and 
to these the undersigned exclusively referred in his last note upon the subject. 
The said 18th article of the treaty of the 5th of April enumerates the articles 
prohibited which are comprehended under the qualification of contraband of 
war, and in the third section it mentions expressly horses with their furniture; 
and the fourth terminates by saying, " or of any other materials manufactured, 
prepared, and formed expressly to make war by sea or land." 

The undersigned deems it altogether unnecessary to make any effort to show 
that the mules as well as the wagons which form the means of transportation, 
without which the military operations are impossible, are included among 
the articles which the treaty enumerates as of the character of contraband 
of war. 

From what has been manifested, it appears that Mexico has not thought of 
perscribing to the United States what merchandise they may sell to French 
subjects, and what are those they cannot sell to them, as the honorable Secre- 
tary of States seems to have understood it. 

It (Mexico) has only desired that the United States should comply with one 
of the obligations which the treaty which binds them to Mexico imposes upon 
them, and that they do not permit a trade which the treaty referred to declares 
to be illegal. This just claim is exactly the same which the government of the 
United States has been making for several months upon the British government, 
and the undersigned cannot have been less than greatly surprised upon seeing 
that what this government deems it just to exact from that of. Great Britain, it 
should not deem it just to concede to that of Mexico. As the despatches upon 
which the opinion of the undersigned is founded are familiar to the honorable 
Secretary of State, he abstains from citing the precise text of them, which have 
been recently published by the Department of State with the President's mes- 
sage of the 1st instant. In adopting this course, the undersigned has been also 
governed by the desire of not extending too much the present note ; but if the 
honorable Secretary of State should question this assertion, the undersigned 
will have the honor to further discuss this subject more lengthily hereafter in 
another communication. 



28 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The undersigned cannot consider that the general order which prohibits the 
exportation 'of arms from the United States is the cause that the clearance of 
those purchased by Mexico should have been denied ; first, because the date of 
the only general order of prohibition which has come to his knowledge and to 
that of the merchants of New York is subsequent to that refusal ; secondly, 
because subsequently to that refusal, arms have been cleared for other ports 
which are not Mexican ports ; thirdly, because the honorable Secretary of the 
Treasury issued an order to the collector of the custom-house of New York ex- 
pressly prohibiting the clearance of the arms referred to, which would have been 
entirely useless if there had been a general order forbidding such clearances ; 
and fourthly, because the custom-house of New York granted the clearance of 
the same arms purchased by Mexico, when it was asked for Quebec ; and when 
this government received notice that they would be shipped thence to a Mexi- 
can port, it ordered them to be detained and returned to New York. 

The honorable Secretary of State will understand that it is not the object of 
the undersigned to solicit that the clearance of arms to Mexico be permitted. 
He believed that Mexico had the right to purchase them and export them from 
the United States before this government should have recognized the state of 
war existing between Mexico and France ; but from the moment when it de- 
clared itself neutral in such war, he only asks that the same principles be ap- 
plied to France which with so much rigor were applied to Mexico, even before 
such declaration had been made ; for should it not do so, the undersigned will 
find himself under the painful necessity of considering the conduct of the gov- 
ernment of the United States as but little friendly towards Mexico, and as con- 
trary to the obligations which their character of a neutral imposes upon them. 

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the honorable 
William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, the assurances of 
his most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc, tyc, fyc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, January 7, 1S63. 

The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to 
acknowledge the reception of the note of his excellency, Mr. Romero, charge 
d'affaires of the republic of Mexico, which bears date of December 20, and 
relates to the subject of the clearances of certain articles of merchandise at the 
city of New York, alleged by Mr. Romero to have been made on account of 
French subjects, for the use of the French government in its war with Mexico. 

In the note which the undersigned addressed to Mr. Romero on this subject 
on the 15th of December last, and also in an exposition of the same subject 
which was made by the Secretary of the Treasury, and which was submitted 
to Mr. Romero, it was explained that the clearances of which he complains 
were made in conformity with the laws of the United States, and with the 
practical construction of those laws which has prevailed from the foundation of 
this government — a period which includes wars, more or less general, tln*ough- 
out the world, and involving many states situated on the American and Euro- 
pean continents. 

The undersigned, after the most careful reading of Mr. Romero's note, is 
unable to concede that the government of the United States has obliged itself 
to prohibit the exportation of mules and wagons, for which it has no military 
need, from its ports, on French account, because, being in a state of war and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 29 

needing for the use of the government all the fire-arms made and found in the 
country, it has temporarily forbidden the export of such weapons to all nations. 
Nor is it perceived how the treaty between the United States and Mexico, to 
which Mr. Romero refers, bears upon the question, since the United States have 
not set up, or thought of setting up, any claim that Mexico shall be required to 
admit into her ports any articles of merchandise contraband of war which may 
be exported from the United States on French or any other account. 

The undersigned is equally unable to perceive the bearing of Mr. Romero's 
allusions to the correspondence which has occurred between this government 
and that of Great Britain, in which complaints have been made by the United 
States that Great Britain wrongfully and injuriously recognized, as a public 
belligerent, an insurrectionary faction which has arisen in this country ; has 
proclaimed neutrality between that faction and this government ; and has suf- 
fered armed naval expeditions to be fitted out in British ports to depredate on 
the commerce of the United States in violation of, as was believed, the Queen's 
proclamation and of the municipal laws of the United Kingdom. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to Mr. Romero the 
assurances of his most distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM n. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Matias Romero, 

Charge d' Affaires of the Mexican Republic, Washington, D. C. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, January 14, 1863. 
The undersigned, charge - d'affaires of the United Mexican States, has had 
the honor of receiving, to-day, the note which, under date of the 7th instant, 
the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of 
America, was pleased to address to him in regard to the clearance, from ports 
of the United States, of articles contraband of war, purchased by emissaries of 
the French army invading Mexico, for the use of that army. 

Although the undersigned, in compliance with his duty, has left the deter- 
mination of this delicate affair to his government, as he has informed the honor- 
able Secretary of State, he thinks he is bound to make some observations 
which occur to him, in view of the argument contained in the note that he has 
just received from the Department of State of the United States. 

The honorable Secretary of State says that he has not been able to perceive 
what congruency there is between the articles mentioned by the undersigned in 
his note of December 20, 1862, of the treaty which binds Mexico and the United 
States to each other, and the present question, " since the United States have 
not set up, or thought of setting up, any claim that Mexico shall be required to 
admit into her ports any articles of merchandise contraband of war which may 
be exported from the United States on French, or any other, account." As, 
in the opinion of the undersigned, there can be no doubt that the present ques- 
tion is regulated by the stipulations which have been mentioned, he requests 
the honorable Secretary of State to permit him again to refer to them. 

The undersigned has maintained that the exportation from the United States 
of articles contraband of war, purchased by emissaries of the French army in- 
vading Mexico for the use of that army, is illegal according to the stipulations 
of the treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation concluded between Mexico 
and the United States on the 5th of April, 1831. Article 16 declares legal the 
most ample liberty of commerce and navigation between the two countries, and 



30 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

article 18 provides that such liberty of navigation and commerce is not extended 
to articles contraband of war. If, therefore, the traffic in these articles is ille- 
gal, it is the duty of the government of the United States not to authorize it ; 
and in granting to it the same liberty and the same franchises as to the traffic in 
articles of lawful commerce, this government fails to comply with one of the 
obligations imposed on it by said treaty. 

Nor has the honorable Secretary of State discovered any similarity between 
this case and that which appears in the recently published correspondence be- 
tween this government and that of Great Britain, to which the undersigned 
referred in his said note of the 20th of December last, expressing his surprise 
that the government of the United States should deem it just to demand from 
the government of Great Britain what it is unwilling to concede to that of Mexico. 

It is true that what the United States have chiefly complained of against the 
British government is the fitting out at and sailing from British ports of naval 
expeditions organized by the insurrectionary States, with which the United 
States are now at war ; but this government has not limited itself to asking 
the British government not to permit the fitting out and sailing of such expedi- 
tions ; it has gone further. It has demanded that it should not permit the 
purchase and exportation from British ports of articles contraband of war in- 
tended for insurrectionary States, which is exactly what the undersigned has 
thought he had a right to demand of this government. 

Lord Russell, in replying on the 10th of May, 1862, to a note which on the 
8th of the same month had been addressed to him by the minister of the United 
States accredited near the British government, in which he had proposed that 
the statute of George IV, of 3d July, 1819, which prohibits the enlistment of 
British subjects in armies of belligerent powers, when Great Britain is neutral, 
might be amended, said what will be found on page 93 of the diplomatic cor- 
respondence annexed to the annual message of the President of the United 
States of the 1st of December, 1862, which is entirely the same position in 
which the government of the United States has desired to place itself with 
respect to Mexico, and which is as follows : " The foreign enlistment act is in- 
tended to prevent the subjects of the crown from going to war when the sove- 
reign is not at war. * * * In these cases (enlistment in a belligerent 
army and the fitting out of vessels) the persons so acting would carry on war, 
and thus might engage the name of their sovereign and of their nation in bel- 
ligerent operations. But owners and freighters of vessels carrying warlike 
stores do nothing of the kind. If captured for breaking a blockade or carrying 
contraband of war to the enemy of the captor, they submit to capture, are tried, 
and condemned to lose their cargo." * * * 

Mr. Adams replied to Lord Russell on the 12th of the said month of May, 
(page 94,) as follows : " The position which I did mean to take is this : that the 
intent of the enlistment act, as explained by the words of its preamble, was to 
prevent the unauthorized action of subjects of Great Britain, disposed to embark 
in the contests of foreign nations, from involving the country in the risk of a 
war with these countries. This view of the law does not seem to be materially 
varied by your lordship. When speaking of the same thing you say that the 
law applies to cases where 'private persons so acting would carry on war, and 
thus might engage the name of their sovereign and of their nation in belligerent 
operations.' It is further shown by that preamble, that that act was an addi- 
tional act of prevention, made necessary by experience of the inefficiency of 
former acts passed to effect the same object. 

" But it ifc now made plain that whatever may have been the skill with which 
this latest act was drawn, it does not completely fulfil its intent, because it is 
very certain that many British subjects are now engaged in undertakings of a 
hostile character to a foreign state, which, though not technically within the 
strict letter of the enlistment act, are as much contrary to its spirit as if they 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 31 

levied war directly. Their measures embrace all the operations preliminary to 
openly carrying on war — the supply of men and ships and arms and money to 
one party, in order that they may be the better enabled to overcome the other, 
which other is in this case a nation with which Great Britain is now under 
treaty obligations of the most solemn nature to maintain a lasting peace and 
friendship." * * * * * * * 

This is exactly what the undersigned has solicited since the discussion of this 
affair began, in the note which he addressed to the Department of State on the 
10th of December last. 

This view of the question is not exclusive to Mr. Adams : the honorable Sec- 
retary of State, in the despatch which he addressed to the minister of the United 
States at London, on the 2d of June, 1862, (page 108,) adopts it entirely in 
saying to him as follows : "There has just now fallen into our hands a very 
extraordinary document, being a report made by Caleb Huse, who calls himself 
a captain of artillery, and who is an agent of the insurgents in Europe for the 
purchase of arms, munitions of war, and military supplies, which have been 
shipped by him in England and elsewhere, in the mad attempt to overthrow the 
federal Union. It reveals enough to show that the complaints you have made 
to Earl Russell fell infinitely short of the real abuses of neutrality which have 
been committed in Great Britain in the very face of her Majesty's government." 

In writing those lines it seems the honorable Secretary of State had forgotten 
the doctrine which he now says is " conformable to the laws of the United 
States, and to the practical application of those laws which has prevailed since 
the foundation of this government." 

Among the so-called authorities which have governed the course of the hon- 
orable Secretary of the Treasury, and which were submitted to the undersigned, 
and have again been referred to by the honorable Secretary of State, is the fol- 
lowing fragment of the instructions communicated by Mr. Webster to Mr. 
Thompson, on the 8th of July, 1842, that is as follows : 

"As to advances, loans, or donations of money or goods, made by individuals 
to the government of Texas or its citizens, the Mexican government needs not 
to be informed that there is nothing unlawful in this, so long as Texas is at 
peace with the United States, and that there are things which no government 
undertakes to restrain." 

This sentence, which in the opinion of the government of the United States 
is an authority that may be applied to Mexico with the same rigor as if it were 
an article of the international code, loses all its force when it concerns the United 
States. A while ago the consul of the United States at Liverpool learned that 
in that city a subscription was being raised of 6640,000 to assist the insurgents 
of this country, to whoni England had conceded all the rights of belligerents. 
Instead of the honorable Secretary of State seeing in this transaction a matter 
" in which there was nothing unlawful, so long as England was at peace with 
the southern States, and one of those things which no government thinks of pro- 
hibiting," he addressed, under date of the 1st of May, 1862, (page 78,) a de- 
spatch to Mr. Adams, recommending him to call the attention of Lord Russell 
to the transaction. Evidently the honorable Secretary of State did not propose 
that Mr. Adams should speak to Lord Russell of this affair with a view of ap- 
proving of it and of manifesting that there was nothing unlawful in it, but that 
he should request the English government to apply a remedy to this want of 
neutrality. 

In the archives of the United States, as in those of other nations, there are 
opposite opinions on all questionable points ; even on those which can hardly 
be a subject of discussion. In the present case, it seems to the undersigned 
that the honorable Secretary of the Treasury has only collected those authori- 
ties which do not favor the just cause of Mexico. The undersigned might pre- 



32 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

sent, in support of Ms good right, another list of American authorities more 
numerous and more weighty than those which appear to have induced the hon- 
orable Secretary of the Treasury to concede to France what separates the United 
States from that neutrality which they declare that they wish to observe in the 
war between Mexico and the Emperor of the French. 

The honorable Secretary of State is pleased to inform the undersigned that 
the prohibition against exporting arms from the ports of the United States, 
which was first adopted to the prejudice of Mexico only, and which afterwards 
became general, is a temporary measure. The opinion which the undersigned 
holds respecting the motives which have induced the government of the United 
States to prohibit the exportation of arms to Mexico — an opinion founded on 
undeniable facts — would fail to be justified if the prohibition against exporting 
arms will be raised when, on account of the French having occupied or block- 
aded the whole coast of Mexico, it would be entirely impossible to introduce 
arms into the republic. 

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the honorable 
William II. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, the assurances of 
his most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc., fyc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, January 17, 1863. 
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has had the honor 
to receive the note which was addressed to him on the 14th instant by Mr. 
Romero, concerning the action of the Treasury Department in relation to ship- 
ments of goods at New York for Mexican ports. 

The undersigned, while seeing no cause further to expatiate upon the reasons 
heretofore offered in explanation of that measure, avails himself of this occasion 
to offer to Mr. Romero a renewed assurance of his high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Matias Romero, Sfc, fyc, Sfc. 



Mr. Rankin to Mr. Seivard. 
[Telegram.] 



San Francisco, January 14, 1863. 
French consul desires me to prevent shipment of contraband goods to Mexico. 
Shall I comply? If yes, what articles deemed contraband? 

IRA P. RANKIN, Collector. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 33 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Rankin. 
[Telegram. ] 

Department of State, 

Was/ting-ton, January 15, 1863. 
Your telegram of the 14th has been received. Subjoined is a copy of an ex- 
ecutive order of the 30th November last, which will serve as an answer to your 
inquiry. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Ira P. Rankin, 

Collector of Customs, San Francisco. 



Executive Mansion, 
Washington City, November 20, 1862. 
Ordered, That no arms, ammunition, or munitions of war be cleared or al- 
lowed to be exported from the United States until further order. That any 
clearances of arms, ammunition, or munitions of war issued heretofore by the 
Treasury Department be vacated, if the articles have not passed without the 
United States, and the articles stopped. That the Secretary of War hold pos- 
session of the arms, &c, recently seized by his order at Rouse's Point, bound 
for Canada. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, January 20, 1863. 

The undersigned, charge d'affaires of the United Mexican States, has the 
honor to address himself to the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of 
the United States of America, to inform him that he has received a communica- 
tion, dated the 17th of this month, from the Mexican citizen Camilo Camara, 
now sojourning in New York, and of which he encloses a copy. From this 
communication it appears that the custom-house at New York refuses to clear, 
for the port of Sisal, a cargo of powder, lead, and dint-stones, intended to sus- 
tain the war which the government of Yucatan is waging against the revolted 
Indians of that peninsula. 

As all that has come to the knowledge of the undersigned is, that the expor- 
tation of arms to Mexico is the only thing which the government of the United 
States has prohibited up to this time, he could not less than be surprised at 
seeing that the prohibition is being extended to the other articles contraband 
of war which Mexico is in want of, even though she does not intend to make 
use of them in the war which the republic is siistaining against the Emperor of 
the French. 

The undersigned would be thankful to the honorable the Secretary of State 
if he would be pleased to inform him, if it be possible, what are the articles, be- 
sides arms, the exportation of which to the ports of Mexico, which are in the 
possession of the authorities of the republic, this government has prohibited. 

The undersigned would also be pleased to know if the honorable the Secretary 
of State would have the goodness to inform him whether this government pro- 
poses to clear, or not, the cargo to which the said letter of Mr. Camara refers. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 3 



34 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the Hon. Wm. 
H. Seward, Secret iry of State of the United States, the assurances of his most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



[Translation.] 

New York, January 17, 1863. 
Honored Sir : I, the undersigned, a Mexican citizen, a native and a merchant of Yuca- 
tan, at the present time sojourning in this city for the purpose of commercial pursuits, as is 
customary, most respectfully do make known to you that I have been much surprised that 
the custom-house in this place should not permit me to ship, in either an American or a 
foreign vessel, a small quantity of powder, lead, and flint-stones, which my consignees in 
this city, Messrs. Riera & Thebaud, merchants thereof, have endeavored to ship for my 
account on an English vessel, and destined to Sisal, for the use of that state. You cannot 
but know, sir, that we have no other means of supplying ourselves with these articles, unless 
it be from the United States, whence they have always been carried, and at the same time 
you know that in our countiy it is indispensable to us to have powder and other articles of 
war, owing most especially to the desolating war now being carried on against us by the 
rebellious Indians. Independently of these considerations we have to call your attention to 
the fact that, while we are prevented from a lawful trade in these articles of war, it is said 
they have permitted here the exportation of effects for the French, who are actually waging 
war against our republic. 

My aforesaid consignees have written upon the subject to the War Department at Wash- 
ington, offering to give a security until we shall send a certificate from Yucatan, in which it 
is certified that these articles have been landed in, and are for the use of, that country, and 
to the said letter, of which I enclose you a copy, no answer has as yet been received. A 
disposition so arbitrary and illegal, preventing the shipment of certain articles to Mexico, 
not only does injury to the different states of the republic, by depriving them of the revenues 
which these articles would produce, and necessary to their consumption, but, in a very direct 
manner, to the commerce and government of Yucatan, which requires them to oppose the 
rebellious Indians. I do not see what lawful objection there is to prevent a traffic guaranteed 
by the treaties which exist between the two countries ; and considering that my reasons are 
well founded, and that your co-operation in this case is made necessary, I take the liberty to 
request you to take the trouble to attend to this, my petition with the least possible delay, 
inasmuch as the vessel which will carry my invoice is now being loaded, by applying for 
this purpose to the War Department to obtain the permission for shipping these effects hence 
for Yucatan, with the guarantee, if they desire it, of the respectable signatures of Messrs. 
Riera & Thebaud, as has been done in other similar cases. 

The interest you may take in this matter, as our worthy representative, is the only means 
of favorably settling this business for us, and I do not doubt that you will be pleased to 
extend your protection to me. 

In the event of your needing my address, you will address me to the care of Messrs. Riera 
& Thebaud, and meanwhile 1 have the honor to place myself at your service. 
Your very obedient servant, 

CAMILO CAMARA. 

Sehor Don M. Romero, 

Minister from the Mexican Republic, in Washington. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, January 21, 1S63. 

Sir : In reply to your note of yesterday expressing surprise at the refusal of 
the custom-house authorities to clear for the port of Sisal a cargo of powder, 
lead, and flint-stones, and desiring to be informed what are the articles the ex- 
portation of which has been prohibited by this government, I have the honor to 
state that, on the 20th November last, an executive order from the President of 
the United States directed " that no arms, ammunition, or munitions of war be 
cleared or allowed to be exported from the United States until further order." 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 35 

I am not aware that this order has been relaxed or rescinded, nor do I per- 
ceive the propriety or expediency of remitting it under existing circumstances. 
I avail, &c, &c, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Seiior Matias Romero, t\c., Sfc., Sp. 



General Canby to Mr. Seward. 



War Department, 
Washington City, February 17, 1864. 
Sin : The Secretary of War instructs me to submit to you the enclosed letter 
and accompaniments from T. Lemmen Meyer, San Francisco, soliciting, for 
himself and others, permission to ship blasting powder from that port, for the 
use of designated mines in Mexico, and to request the expression of your opin- 
ion upon the propriety and expediency of granting the privilege asked for. 
I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

ED. R. S. CANBY, 
Brigadier General, A. A. G. 
The Secretary of State, 

Washington, D. C. 



Mr. Meyer to Mr. Stanton. 

San Francisco, January 16, 1H64. 
Sir : I beg to accompany two petitions, signed by me, entreating you to allow the ex- 
portation of a certain amount of powder for the use of two mines in Mexico in which I am 
interested. The damages that would accrue from the want of powder are so well known to 
your honor that I abstain from mentioning them, and I will limit myself to state, for the sake 
of not occupying your valuable time, that the French consul in this city having no objection 
to its exportation, and the French minister in your city consenting to it, (as be will most 
likely do, ) the only party which, in my opinion, remains with the right to either allow or 
prohibit its exportation is the United States government. 
Allow me to offer you, honorable sir, my most sincere respects. 

T. LEMMEN MEYER. 
Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 
, Secretary of the United States War Department, Washington, B.C. 



San Francisco, January 16, 1864. 
Dear Sir: Most respectfully and earnestly do we request of you permission to make 
monthly shipments of twenty kegs of blasting powder to the " Agua Grande " copper mine, 
located at Sonora, Mexico, whereof W. Randall is superintendent. Said blasting or mining 
powder to be in kegs, holding 25 pounds each, purchased from Edward H. Parker, San 
Francisco, agent of the Hazard Powder Company, New York, and to be shipped by us to 
the port of Guaymas, Mexico, on board the steamer Sierra Nevada, or John L. Stephens, of 
B. Holladay's line. 

If in the affirmative, please answer by telegraph. 

Yours respectfully, 

T. LEMMEN MEYER. 
Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of the U. S. War Department, Washington City, D.C. 



36 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Note by the Department of State. 

Permits were also requested from the War Department, in letters of the same 
tenor as the foregoing, to make monthly shipments of powder to mines in Mexico 
and Lower California, by the parties whose names appear annexed, and which 
letters are dated January 15 and 16, 1S64. 

T. Lemmen Meyer. — Twenty kegs for Panuoa silver mine, in Sinaloa, 
Mexico. 

L. B. Bentley & Co. — Eighty kegs for Guadalupe silver mine, in Chihuahua, 
Mexico. Twenty kegs for Bella Vista gold and silver mine, in Lower California. 

Eggers & Co. — Ten kegs for Ida silver mine, in Lower California. Ten 
kegs for Henriette and Sophie gold and silver mine, in Lower California. Ten 
kegs for El Tesoro silver mine, in Lower California. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, February 19, 1864. 

Sir : I have the honor to communicate herewith a copy of a letter addressed 
to me on the 17th instant, under instructions from the Secretary of War, by 
Brigadier General Canby, together with a copy of the papers referred to, relating 
to an application from Mr. T. L. Meyer, of San Francisco, for permission to ship 
some blasting powder, intended for mining purposes, from that port to Mazatlan. 

Under existing circumstances I conceive it necessary that such an application 
should first be submitted to the belligerent powers now exercising authority in 
Mexico, and beg therefore to refer the subject to you as the representative of 
one of those powers. 

I avail, &c, &c, &c, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senior Matias Romero, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



Mr. Ro?nero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 



Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 20, 1S64. 

Mr. Secretary : I have received the note which, under yesterday's date, 
your excellency was pleased to address to me, accompanied by a communication 
sent to you by Brigadier General Canby, together with various copies of appli- 
cations made by Mr. T. L. Meyer, of San Francisco, California, that permission 
may be accorded to him to ship mining gunpowder to the ports of Guaymas, 
La Paz, and Mazatlan. 

You consider that, under existing circumstances, it is necessary for you to 
recur " to the belligerent powers exercising authority in Mexico," in order to be 
ready to come to a decision on this point, and, as the representative of one of 
those powers, you are pleased to ask for my opinion. 

Without expressing formally any opinion on this occasion as to the necessity 
of consulting both belligerent parties, which in your judgment exists, whenever 
there may be question of the introduction into Mexico of an article which may 
serve the uses of warfare, and falling back upon what, in this respect, I have 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS 37 

had the honor to state to you on other occasions, I must now say that, for my 
part, I do not think there can be any impropriety in carrying to the ports indi- 
cated the mining gunpowder to which these applications refer. 

I avail of this opportunity to reiterate to you the assurances of my very dis- 
tinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc, Sfc, &;c. 



No. 3 — Intervention in New Granada. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward March J9, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero March 20, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward March 21, 1863. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, March 19, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary: Among the diplomatic correspondence which accompanies 
the message which the President addressed to the 37th Congress of the United 
States, dated December 1, 1862, and of which I seasonably transmitted a copy 
to the government of Mexico, there are documents relating to a subject which 
has attracted its attention in a very special manner, and respecting which I have 
received instructions to submit its views to the government of the United States. 

The Mexican government, which has always considered as an indispensable 
condition for the preservation of the independence and autonomy of the American 
nations the keeping out of them the intervention of the European powers in 
their domestic affairs, and which, in order to maintain this sacred principle intact 
to-day, finds itself involved in a most gigantic war with one of the most powerful 
and most warlike nations of Europe, cannot see with indifference the events oc- 
curring iu other portions of the American continent, and from which there may 
result, sooner or later, an European intervention in these countries. 

The fa,tes of the nations of America are bound together in such a manner that 
if the encroachments of the despots of Europe should succeed in one of them, it 
would scarcely be possible to prevent their being extended to all of them. Upon 
this subject the opinion of the government of Mexico is in full accord with the 
traditional policy of the United States. 

In the opinion of the government of Mexico, the result could have been none 
other than that of an European intervention, if the proposal which the United 
States made in June last to the cabinets of St. James and the Tuilleries, to send 
land forces to the isthmus of Panama, with a view of protecting the neutrality 
of the isthmus, had been accepted by the governments of Great Britain and 
France. 

Events have come to demonstrate, in a manner which does not admit of reply, 
that neither the tranquillity of that region was changed, nor its transit inter- 
rupted, because of its occupation by the forces of General Mosquera, who, at that 
time, was already in possession of Bogota, the capital of New Granada, and who 
had overthrown the constitutional government of that confederation. 



38 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The petition, (request,) therefore, on the part of the late representative of the 
Granadian confederation, that the United States should send forces which should 
reoccupy for his party the possession of the isthmus, under the plea that if it fell 
under, or remained in, the power of General Mosquera, the security of the isth- 
mus would not he sufficiently protected, had, it seemed, no other object than to 
cause the plague of a foreign intervention to recoil upon his own country, in 
order that, through its aid, the party which had been overthrown might thus 
re-establish itself into p >wer. 

The pretexts which the Mexican emigrants residing in Europe adduced to 
the courts of Paris and Madrid were no less inadequate to bring about a similar 
result in Mexico, and which determined three of the nations of that continent to 
sign the treaty of London of the 31st of October, 1861, which unchained against 
Mexico the present war with France, and the calamities resulting therefrom. 

The government of Mexico has, for this same reason, seen the last resolution 
of the President of the United States upon this subject, which you communicated 
to Mr. Dayton in the despatch, No. 215, of September 15, 1862, (page 381 of 
said correspondence,) in which the danger of an European intervention in New 
Granada is made to disappear, with a satisfaction as great and as sincere as its 
alarm would have been intense and profound in the event of a contrary deter- 
mination. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 



M. ROMERO. 



Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., fyc, Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 20, 1863. 

Sir : The undersigned, Secretary of State, has the honor to acknowledge the 
receipt of a note from his excellency Seilor Matias Romero, which bears the 
date of the 19th of March instant, and alludes to a correspondence which occurred 
during the last year between his excellency Senor P. A. Herran, minister pleni- 
potentiary of the repub ic of New Granada, and the government of the United 
States, affecting the security at that time of the Panama railroad transit route 
in New Granada. 

While the United States not only have no disposition to controvert the gen- 
eral views of the government of Mexico in regard to foreign intervention in the 
political affairs of the American states on this continent, but freely confess their 
sympathy with these views, as they are communicated by Mr. Romero, the un- 
dersigned, nevertheless, feels obliged to express his regret that a misapprehen- 
sion, doubtless unin entional, of the character of the correspondence referred to, 
has seemed to the Mexican government to render it necessary to direct that 
communication to be made. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to offer to Mr. Romero the 
assurance of his high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Matias Romero. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 39 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, March 21, 1S63. 

Sir : The undersigned, charge d'affaires of the United Mexican States, has 
had the honor to receive the note which the honorable William H. Seward, 
Secretary of State of the United States of America, was pleased to address to 
him under date of yesterday, in reply to the one which the undersigned placed 
in the hands of the honorable Mr. Seward, at the interview which he had with 
him on the nineteenth of the present month, in relation to the proposition made 
last year by the United States to the governments of Great Britain and France, 
with the object of protecting the security of the transit across the isthmus of 
Panama, which the government of the United States believed to be in danger 
in consequence of the political events which then occurred in New Granada. 

The undersigned has seen, with the liveliest satisfaction, that, according to 
the expression of the honorable the Secretary of State, "the United States have 
not only no disposition to controvert the general views of the government of 
Mexico in regard to foreign intervention in the political affairs of the American 
States on this continent, but freely confess their sympathy with these views, as 
they are communicated by the undersigned to the Department of State in his 
note aforesaid." 

The satisfaction of the undersigned has been still the greater, upon seeing that 
the honorable the Secretary of State considers as a groundless fear the uneasi- 
ness which the government of Mexico felt on receiving notice of the proposition 
made by the United States to the cabinets of Saint James and the Tuilleries, 
believing that if it were accepted it would lead to a foreign intervention in the 
domestic affairs of New Granada; for this shows, in the opinion of the under- 
signed, that, although the result of such a proposition might have been that 
which the government of Mexico feared, the United States were very far from 
desiring it, and were looking for another wholly distinct. 

The undersigned will with pleasure hasten to send a copy of the note of the 
honorable the Secretary of State to Mexico; and he does not doubt that it will 
be viewed by his government with the utmost and most sincere satisfaction; 
and that it will finally set at rest the fears which had been entertained in view 
of the proposition hereinbefore alluded to. 

The undersigned believes it to be his duty to express to the honorable the 
Secretary of State how greatly. he regrets that the communication which the 
undersigned made to the United States, by order of his government, should 
have been received with regret by the honorable the Secretary of State, who 
laments that the government of Mexico should have thought itself under the 
necessity of making such a communication. The gravity and great importance 
of the question of intervention, on the favorable result of the solution of which to 
the nations of America now depends not only the welfare but the independence 
itself of Mexico, the undersigned believes are motives which authorize the gov- 
ernment of Mexico to respectfully manifest its views to the United States upon 
a point in which all the other nations of this continent are equally interested 
with themselves. 

The government of Mexico must, therefore, have considered itself authorized 
(entitled) to make such a manifestation, especially when it was made expressing 
the pleasure, as heartfelt as it was sincere, with which the Mexican government 
had learned of the final determination of the President of the United Spates 
upon this subject. 



40 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the honorable 
"William H. Seward, Secretary of Sl.ate of the United States, the assurances of 
his most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fye., §-c, fye. 



No. 4. — Case of the steamer Noc-Daquy. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) February 23, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero - February 25, 1863. 

Same to same March 6, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward March 6, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with twelve enclosures) March 13, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with four enclosures) April 15, 1863. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Setvard. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican' Legation, 

Washington, February 23, 1863. 

The Mexican consul at Havana has sent me a copy of an affidavit made at 
the consulate under his charge by sundry individuals of the crew of the steamer 
Noc-Daquy, captured by the Mexican authorities of Yucatan for being in the 
slave trade. If the facts be true which are narrated in that affidavit, of which 
I have the honor to enclose you a copy, the United States steamers "Wachusett 
and Sonoma, which arrived at the island of Mugeree the 2Sth December last, 
under the order of Commodore Wilkes, committed the offence of taking by force 
from the jurisdiction of the Mexican tribunals a prize which was subject to 
them, and which they were passing upon in accordance with the laws. 

I have no doubt that, if such facts should turn out to be proven, the govern- 
ment of the United States will be disposed to give to that of Mexico all the 
satisfaction that may be due to it for the violation of its rights, as she has done 
to other nations whose maritime sovereignty has not been respected by vessels 
of the United States. Although I have not yet received instructions from my 
government upon this matter — and probably they will not communicate with me 
until the receipt in Mexico of the reports from the governor of Yucatan — I believe 
it to be my duty to communicate to you at once the affidavit mentioned for the 
information of the government of the United States, reserving the application 
for what may be rightly due when I shall receive instructions from the Mexican 
government. 

I profit by this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, <§r., Sfc., Sfc. 



[Translation.] 

Consulate of Mexico, at the Havana. 

I certify that on pages 243, 214, 2 15. and 246, of book A, protocols of this consulate, are 
found recorded the following: documents : 

Consulate of Mexico, at the Havana. 

On the tenth of February, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, there came 
to me, at this consulate, and before me and the undersigned witnesses, with the aid of the 
interpreter of the government, Don Ramon de Aroastia, the following individuals belonging 
to the crew of the steamer Noc-Daquy, delivering to me a letter dated at Key West, and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 41 

signed by Chief Engineer Wm. E. Hardy, of that vessel, stating at the same time, and 
spontaneously, that they made the affidavit that all the said machinist Hardy said in the 
said document, which they plaoed in the hands of the consul subscribing, was the plain 
truth as to what had occurred at the islands Mujeres with the steamer Noc-Daquy : Samuel 
Croply, second engineer ; P'lipe Carvin, fireman ; Francisco Harappy, fireman ; Jose* Maria 
Trias, fireman ; Jose Colmen, fireman ; Pedro Juan, mariner ; Luis Cosine, mariner ; Du- 
cornte Jean, mariner ; Manuel Lisboa, mariner ; Caire Jaques, mariner. 

The letter to which the individuals mentioned attest was written in English, at Key 
West, dated the 2d instant, and signed by the first engineer of the steamer Noc-Daquy, 
translated into Spanish by the said interpreter, and says literally as follows : 

Key West, February 2, 1863. 

Sir : I hope the following narrative will be read, because it interests you, as well as your 
government. I embarked at the Havana on the 13th December last, to join a steamer 
lying at the island Mujeres, to run the blockade at Mobile. On arriving at the island 
we found the steamer in the hands of the Mexican authorities. The employes allowed 
some of us to go on board to repair the engines, one of which was broken. On the 28th 
December the United States steamers Wachusett and Sonoma came into port, under com- 
mand of Admiral Wilkes ; and, on the 29th, he sent on board a lieutenant and fifteen 
men, who took possession of the vessel. We still went on working, believing she was a 
Mexican prize, and that we would be remunerated for our labor On the 9th January, 
1863, the Sonoma went to Sisal. Upon her return she brought word that the Mexican au- 
thorities at Mevida had considered the vessel ("Noc-Daquy," alias "Virginia") as a 
slaver. On the 18th of January, our captain, acting under the orders of Admiral Wilkes, 
told me to set the engine going, which I did ; and while I was below obeying his orders he 
hoisted the banner of the Confederate States, and, on seeing this, I got the engines ready, 
(before the anchor was weighed,) when immediately they were set in motion by the lieu- 
tenant of marines. In fine, the United States seamen got her out of port any way, weighed 
anchor, appointed firemen, and the lieutenant acted as engineer. When she was at a short 
distance from latid they took possession of her in the following ridiculous way : 

Officer of the Sonoma. " What bark is that ? " 

Captain of the Noc-Daquy. "The c mfederate steamer Virginia." 

Then the Wachusett fired a cannon-shot, and sent the crew on board as prize ; and be- 
cause we, the crew of the steamer Noc-Daguy, did not choose to work under the con- 
federate banner, nor take part in the infamous plan for stealing the vessel, and for refusing 
to bring her to this port, we were taken on board the steamers Wachusett and Sonoma 
and treated as traitors, in which condition we now are, and we ask you to act at once in this 
matter, because the bark is valued at $100,000, and there are nineteen of the crew who 
will corroborate all aforesaid. I forgot to say the cargo of the schooner was taken on board 
the steamer by express order of Admiral Wilkes. 
I am, respectfully, 

WILLIAM E. HARDY, Engineer. 

I certify what precedes is a faithful translation of the original in English, which I have 
marked. 

In faith whereof, I place at foot my signature and seal, at the Havana, the 10th February, 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. 

RAMON DE AROISTIA, 
Interpreter for the Public and the Government. 

Seal thereto, bearing interpretation for the public and the government. 

(Signed) SAMUEL CROPLY, 

For Felipe Corvin, Francisco Harappy, Jos6 Colmen, Pedro Juan, 
Luis Cosine, Manuel Lisbon, and Caire Jacques, which individuals don't know how to write, 
and he does it at their request. 

SAMUEL CROPLY. 
(Signed) JOSE MA TRIAS. 

(Signed) ALEX. McINTOSH. 

(Signed) MICHAEL HYLAND. 

(Signed) ALEX. McINTOSH. 

Signed as witness: A C. Mraos, 
A. Hartman. 
(Signed) RAMON S. DIAZ. 

Consulate of Mexico, Habana, February 11, 1863. 



A copy. — Washington, February 23, 1863. 



ROMERO 



42 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, February 25, 1SG3. 
Sir: 1 have had the honor to receive your note of the 23d instant, relative 
to an alleged forcible taking from the jurisdiction of the Mexican tribunals, by 
Acting Rear- Admiral Wilkes, of the steamer Noc-Daquy. captured by the 
authorities of Yucatan for being engaged in the slave trade. 

In reply. 1 have the honor to acquaint you that a translation of your com- 
munication will be at once submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, with a request 
for an inquiry into the case, with a view to such further proceedings as the result 
may be found to call for. 

I avail myself of the occasion, sir, to offer you a renewed assurance of rny 
verv high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Sefior .Don Matias Romero, av., §r. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 6. 1S63. 

Sir: I have to acquaint you that a report from Rear- Admiral Wilkes lias 
been received, through the Navy Department, on the subject of the steamer 
Virginia, alias Noc-Daquy. From this report, and the accompanying proofs, it 
appears that that vessel, though claimed to have been intended for the slave 
trade, was in reality the property of insurgents iu arms against the United 
States, and was intended to run the blockade of Mobile, with a cargo which 
was taken from Havana to Mugeres island, on board the Spanish schooner 
Pepita. It also appears that, iu point of tact, the Virginia was captured be- 
yond the maritime jurisdiction of the Mexican republic. Inasmuch, however. 
as the vessel has been sent to Key West for adjudication, it is not to be doubted 
that the prize court there will give due attention to any claim which the Mexi- 
can republic may prefer with reference to her. 

I avail myself of the occasion, sir. to offer to you the assurance of my dis- 
tinguished consideration. 



St nor Don Matias Romero, Sfc., Sr.. fyc. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation] 



Mexican Legation, 

Washington, March 6, 1863 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the note you 
were pleased to address to me of this day's date, informing me of a despatch 
from Rear-Admiral Wilkes, and. from the evidence which accompanies it. the 
steamer Noc-Daquy. it appears, is in " reality the property of rebels against the 
United States, which was intended to run the blockade of Mobile with a cargo 
which was brought from the Havana to the island of Mugeres by the Spanish 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 43 

schooner Pepita, and that the steamer was captured outside of the maritime 
jurisdiction of the Mexican republic." In said note you are pleased to state, 
besides, that, supposing the Nbc-Daquy had been sent to Key West for trial 
there, it i.s not to be doubted that the prize court would give due attention to 

any complaint which the Mexican government might present with reference to 

said vessel. 

Not having yet received the instructions of my government on this Subject, I 
restrict myself to sending to Mexico a copy of your note. If the Mexican gov- 
ernment could have before them the evidence to which you make reference, I 
have no doubt it would contribute to making it form a just idea of what has 
happened. 

As to what relates to the disposition the court of prizes at Key West may en- 
tertain to give due attention to the claims of the Mexican government, I must 
say to you that, by the reports which have reached my knowledge in respect to 
this matter, it appears that Rear-Admiral Wilkes forcibly withdrew from the 
jurisdiction of the Mexican courts a prize which was subject to them, and which 
they had under trial according to the laws. This constitutes a violation of* the 
maritime sovereignty of Mexico by vessels of the government of the United 
States. Of this violation J complain, conditionally, in the note I had the honor 
to address to you on the 23d of February last past, and to obtain reparation 
therefor, in case it should prove to he true; I could not address myself to the 
court at Key West, which could not give me proper satisfaction. If from 
proofs existent in your department, and those Mexico may furnish me, it should 
appear that the sovereignty of Mexico has not been violated, no more would 
be left for me to say on this matter, for I should not have any ground for claim. 

1 avail of this opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William II. Seward, <^c, fyc, Sp. 



Mr. Seward t<> Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 13, 1863. 

Sir: Your note of the 6th instant was duly received. In compliance with 
the request which it contains, a copy of the communications of Rear-Admiral 
Wilkes to the Navy Department, relative to the insurgent steamer Virginia, is 
herewith transmitted. I adhere to the opinion, however, expressed in my note 
to you of the 6th instant, that if your government has any claim to that vessel, 
there can be no doubt that the claim would be patiently heard and justly de- 
cided by the United States prize court at Key West. 

I avail myself of the occasion, sir, to offer to you a renewed assurance of my 
high consideration. 

WILLIAM II. SEWARD. 

Sefior Don Matias Romero, fyc., ty-., Sfe. 



No. 4.] XL S. Flag Steamer Y/achusett, 

Off Mvytrea Mand, January 18, 1863. 
Sia: I have to apprise you that 1 hare this day taken possession of tbe fine iron steamer 
(propeller) Virginia, of 800 tons, whereof John Johnson is mnster, as a prize to the 
Wachusett ami Sonoma, being a confederate vessel, as proved by tbe papers found on 
board, tbe secession flag, and other evidence of the most satisfactory kind. I have 
avoided any interference with international rights whatever, and abstained from making 
her a prize within tbe accustomed limits from the shore. 



44 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The engineers of the Virginia having agreed to perform their duties on board till their 
arrival in the United States, I have given them to understand that they will receive the 
usual wages for their services. I have concluded to order the Virginia to Key West for 
adjudication. I believe she will be found, on inspection, well fitted for a government 
transport or an armament. She is two hundred and twenty feet long, and well built; 
and from her model well calculated for speed and for maintaining the sea, having bunkers 
capable of containing four hundred tons of coal, with a very small consumption of fuel. 
Her propeller trices up. Under canvas she is reported as being very fast, and is bark- 
rigged. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant. 

CHARLES WILKES, 
Rear- Admiral, Commanding Wed India Squadron. 

Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy. 

I herewith enclose copies of papers found on board the Virginia, the originals having 
been forwarded to the district judge or prize commissioners at Key West, numbered 1, 2, 
3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

CHARLES WILKES, 
Rear-Admiral, Commanding West India Squadron. 



No. 1.] Havana, December 10, 1862. 

Sir: The steamer described in the enclosed buildiag certificate belongs, as I am as- 
sured, to Francis P. Drain, a citizen of the Confederate States, now temporarily in Havana, 
and that said steamer is about to sail for Mobile with a cargo suited to the necessities of 
our army and people. Francis P. Drain is known to me to be true, loyal, and devoted to 
our cause, aud I will add, a Virginia gentleman. His steamer goes without a register ; I 
therefore request that you give to his captain all proper facilities in disposing of all his 
cargo, and in the purchase of a return cargo of cotton usual in each case. I also request 
that a register and other papeis necessary under our laws be granted to show ownership in 
said Drain and confederate nationality. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

CH. J. HELM. 

The Commanding Officer, Confederate Forces, Mobile. 

No. 2.] Havana, December 11, 18G2. 

My Dear Sir: My personal friend, F. P. Drain, of Virginia, is largely interested in the 
steamer bearing the name of his istate, for the purpose of running our enemy's blockade 
and benefiting our friends with articles so much needed by them. Should the vessel 
succeed in reaching your port, and her captain or any other person connected with her 
need your kind interference in their behalf, in the way of disposing of her present cargo, 
obtaining one for return or otherwise, I beg that you will do your utmost for them. With 
kind regards to Mrs. Scott and friends, and trusting that your home may not meet with 
the like fate of mine, 

I remain, very truly, your friend, 

W. H. ROZET. 

John Scott, Esq., iVobdc, Ala. 

Particular regards to E. 0. George and lady and Miss Chandler. 

No. 3.] Havana, December 13, 1862. 

Dear Sir: In accordance with the agreement entered upon between ourselves yester- 
day, I beg you will proceed at ouce lo take possession of the steamer Virginia, on the 
coast of Yucatan, put her in seaworthv condition as early as practicable, sailing thence to 
Mobile, Ala. 

Should you succeed in running the blockade, as I expect, you shall report the vrssel to 
the consignment of Messrs. H. 0. Brewer & Co., and so soon as the report cargo is 
shipped upon her by those gentlemen, you shall again endeavor to run the blockade and 
make sail with possible despatch and caution for this port of Havana, delivering me all 
papers concerning vessel and cargo. 

You shall look to the satisfactory disposition of the 400 or 600 boxes claret you carry. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 45 

Herewith an introduction to John Scott, esq., of Mobile, who will assist you, as well as 
consignees, towards promoting my views generally. 

Belying upon your good management of the adventure, which I hope may succeed, 
I remain truly yours, 

FRANCIS P. DRAIN. 
Captain John Johnson, Present. 

No. 4.] Habana, December 12, 1862. 

Gentlemen : With the enclosed introductory lines from our mutual friend, J. Pember- 
ton, I beg to accompany shipping vouchers of cargo per bearer, the steamer Virginia, 
amounting to §15,078 09. 

I have taken the liberty of consigning both cargo and vessel to your address, upon the 
information I have of your promptness, ability, and sound management of the interests 
intrusted to your care. You will, consequently, oblige me by disposing of the cargo to 
best possible advantage, and invest the proceeds in a cargo of cotton, documents of which 
you shall establish and forward to my order, holding at my disposal, with your good selves, 
any surplus of funds resulting after purchase of the return cargo. The within copy of my 
agreement with master and engineers of the steamer Virginia will govern you in your 
management of that vessel's business while in your port; and in this connexion I would 
call your attention to the papers of the craft which I desire you shall have issued in my 
name, under confederate colors. The vessel, running the blockade successfully, will 
reach you without papers. 

I rely upon your management of this affair; and looking to the success of present trial 
for tbe continuance of operations of mutual benefit, 

I remain, most respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 

FRANCIS P. DRAIN. 

Messrs. H. 0. Brewer & Co., Mobile. 

[Memorandum of agreement. Vouchers of cargo.] 

P, S — Besides the goods mentioned in her invoice, the vessel carries 400 to 600 boxes 
claret, which you will dispose of to best advantage, investing proceeds in return cargo. 

Invoice of goods shipped by Francis P. Drain, per confederate steamer Virginia, John Johnson master 
for Mobile, on account of and wish of whom it may concern, and consigned to Messrs. H. 0. Brewer 
^- Co. , there. 

4,800 woollen blankets $6,596 87 

502 do do 596 12 

5,302 woollen blankets 7,192 99 

12 boxes containing 4,000 pairs shoes So, 083 37 

10 bales leather 700 00 

5,863 37 

Provisions. 

100 bags salt $328 98 

20 bags pepper - 400 00 

80 boxes cognac 300 00 

SOjarsgin - 275 00 

20 boxes liquors 50 00 

20 boxes preserved fruits 200 00 

1,553 98 

14,610 34 
Shipping expenses 100 00 

14,710 34 
Commission 2} per cent - 367 75 

E. E. 15,078 09 



FRANCIS P. DBAIN. 
Havana, December 12, 1862. 



46 MEXICAN xiFFAIES. 

No. 5.] Havana, December 12, 1862. 

Gentlemen : I took the liberty of addressing you a few lines recommending F. P. Drain, 
esq., of this place. My acquaintance with you being limited, I heg to apologize, and refer 
you to my friends, Messrs. Charles Welsh, Charles Libaron, Thomas S. King, Mr. Duran, of 
Sands & Co. 

Very respectfully, 

JOHN PEMBERTON. 
Messrs. H. 0. Brewer & Co. , Mobile. 



No. 6.] Havana, December 12, 1862. 

Gentlemen : Mr. Francis P. Drain, of this place, having expressed his desire to enter into 
correspondence with you, I beg to say that he is a gentleman of much standing, and trans- 
actions with him will always prove highly satisfactory. 
With great respect, your very obedient servant, 

JOHN PEMBERTON. 
Messrs. H. 0. Brewer & Co., Mobile. 



No. 7.] Bark Propeller Virginia, 

Off Mugeres Island, December 29, 1862. 

I certify that the bark Noc-Daquy, and now the Virginia, was sold on or about the 15th 
of December last to Francis P. Drain, a merchant in Havana, and was bought by him for 
the purpose of engaging in the confederate service in carrying supplies to the confederate 
army, and in running the blockade ; that she stopped at this place for the purpose of 
receiving her cargo lrom the Spanish schooner Pepita, now here, and that it was the 
intention to sail from this place for Mobile and run the blockade, when she was seized on 
the 21st of December by a party of people from this place, and seized upon the alleged 
suspicion of being a slaver. I further certify that the schooner Pepita was loaded with 
cargo for this steamer, which was to be put on board here, when she was also seized by 
the same party on her arrival here the 22d of December. I further certify that the con- 
federate fUg was hoisted on board this vessel for a day and a half, to which no objection 
was made until the third day, when it was hauled down on the 23d of December, and no 
flag was substituted until the Mexican flag was hoisted upon the day of the arrival of the 
United States vessels-of-war Wachusett and Sonoma at this place. I further certify that, 
to the best of my knowledge and belief, there is nothing in the vessel's fittings or cargo 
upon which to base suspicion that she was intended to engage in the slave traffic. 

JOHN JOHNSON, Master Virginia. 

Witness : 

F. H Stevens, Commander U. S. steamer Sonoma. 

I hereby certify that the foregoing statement is correct. 

JOHN BOSS, Mate Virginia. 
Witness : 

F. H. Stevens, Commander U. S. steamer Sonoma. 



No 5.] United States Flag Steamer Wachusett, 

Off Mugeres Harbor, January 18, 1863. 
Sir: In my communication, No. 4, of this date, I have informed you of the capture of 
the iron propeller steamer Virginia There are some circumstances connected with this 
vessel and a small schooner, the Pepita, under Spanish colors, which it is necessary I should 
now state. In cruising for the Alabama 1 had reason to suppose that she, with the Agrip- 
pina, store vessel, had changed their rendezvous from Grand Cayman island to that of 
Mugeres, on the coast of Yucatan, a well-known place, where vessels intending to run the 
blockade, as well as slaveis, fitted out — a harbor well adapted to their purpose, and where 
the notorious Walker and others fitted their fillibustering expeditions. There is no govern- 
ment or authoiity here whatever, nor is it a port of entry or clearance, but a rendezvous for 
plunderers, slavers, and pirates. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 47 

On our arrival off the harbor we discovered the confederate steamer Virginia, with the 
Spanish schooner Pepita, at anchor, and immediately anchored. The Virginia was formerly 
the Noc-Daquy, and has no doubt been engaged in the slave trade before being purchased 
by the present confederate owners. Captain Johnson came over in the schooner Pepita from 
the Havana with a crew, stores, and contraband articles, to take charge of her, and did 
so, hoisting the confederate flag, the possession having been passed over to him by the 
officer then in charge. At this time a Mexican, who represented himself as an officer, 
Urcelay by name, without authority or any commission, as I have since been informed, 
collected an armed force in order to take possession of the vessel as a slaver, which Captain 
Johnson refused to permit, although threatened by an armed force of plunderers, gathered 
from the island and elsewhere. This took place two days before our arrival. Captain 
Johnson had hoisted the confederate flag, which they took down. This Urcelay removed 
the Spanish crew out of her, accusing them of having been engaged in the slave trade, 
leaving Captain Johnson, his engineers, and part of his confederate crew. He (Captain John- 
son) became apprehensive of difficulties on board, aud threatening of bloodshed was made, 
which was repeated to me by Captain Johnson on my arrival, and a request made for me 
to send a guard on board to prevent violence. This I did, and made an agreement with 
Urcelay to hold possession of her until an examination was made relative to whether she 
was a slaver, of which there was no proof whatever, and to await ten days, that the affair 
might be referred to Merida, he sending some of his men on board the Spanish schooner, 
the Pepita. I then sailed with the Wachusett and Sonoma for the Havana to coal, and to 
return here within the stipulated time, which we have done On my arrival I found no 
information had been received from Merida, or action taken place, although the time had 
elapsed as agreed upon I have determined to send Commander Stevens in the Sonoma 
to Sisal, the seaport of Merida, to avoid any misunderstanding, to ascertain the cause of the 
delay, and what proceeding, if any, had taken place relative to her being proved to be a 
slaver. The Spanish crew had been examined, aud no evidence had been adduced, and no 
further proceeding taken that he could ascertain. In the event of such being the case, 
Commander Stevens was directed to give notice to the authorities that I no longer felt 
myself bound by the agreement, the time having expired, and should act as if the steamer 
was, which I have abundance of evidence to prove, a confederate vessel, fitting out with 
contraband, and intended to run the blockade, and probably, if successful, to be fitted as a 
confederate privateer, for which she is thought to be well adapted. 

During our absence at Havana additional testimony was obtained of her confederate 
character and of the cargo being shipped in the schooner Pepita for her. Captain Johnson 
complained, on my arrival here, that the persons left on board of the Pepita were plun- 
dering the cargo which belonged to his vessel, and consuming the provisions intended for 
the Virginia to a great extent. I therefore gave Captain Johnson my assent to remove 
what remained of it on board the Virginia, leaving the schooner, after being discharged, 
in the possession of those who were on board of her. The Pepita was entirely without the 
limits of her destination, having been cleared at Havana for Cardenas, with the contra- 
band cargo on board I did not consider it proper to make prize of her, as I had proof of 
the cargo belonging to the Virginia ; not wishing to involve ourselves in any international 
question or make the matter more intricate, I determined to leave her in the possession of 
those on board, Spaniards and Mexicans. 

The Virginia being thus free from the charge of being a slaver, seeing there was no es- 
cape for her, Captain Johnson concluded to go beyond the limits of the maritime jurisdic- 
tion, which I permitted when he was captured and his vessel taken a prize to the Wachu- 
sett and Sonoma. I think he is entitled to some remuneration for his services in this 
respect, as he avoided delay on our part and placed her beyond any controversy as to any 
international right, although he evidently could not do otherwise. If I had permitted 
him to remain here he would have fallen into the hands of the parties again and have been 
fitted out to run the blockade ; indeed the owner or agent, Mr. Drain, wa6 down here a 
few days ago with some five thousand dollars to bribe her off, but finding the condition of 
things he left. On the Virginia proceeding to sea we followed and made her capture un- 
der the confederate flag ; I ordered a prize crew on board and have sent her to Key West 
for adjudication, with all the papers found on board. 

I herewith enclose Commander Stevens's report to me, numbered 1, and a copy of his 
letter to the governor of Yucatan, numbered 2. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

CHARLES WILKES, 
Rear- Admiral, Commanding West India Squadron. 
Hon. Gideon Welles, 

Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. 



48 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

United States Steamer Sonoma, 

Mugeres Island, January 14, 1S63. 

Sir : In obedience to your orders I proceeded to Sisal in tlic Sonoma, and finding that 
the United States consul was residing at Merida, I visited that place in connexion with the 
duties I was charged with by you. 

I found the governor of Yucatan absent from the place, and as there was no probability 
of his return for some week or fortnight, and no one to represent him in Merida, I addressed 
him the communication a copy of which I enclose 

No progress towards coming to a decision, as far as I could learn, had been made in the 
case of the Virginia, though I understood from the consul all the Spanish crew had been 
examined without any evidence having been found by the judges to implicate them or the 
vessel as connected with the slave trade. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Rear- Admiral Charles Wilkes, 

Commanding West India Squadion. 



F. H. STEVENS, Commander. 



Merida, January 11, 18U3. 

Sir : I am instructed by Admiral Wilkes to notify you that in consequence of the time 
stipulated with Captain JSicholas Ucelay having elapsed, and without receiving any answer 
to his communication enclosed to you through the United States consul 'at this place, 
although ample time has been afforded, he cannot permit himself to be any longer bound 
by that agreement that has been violated in consequence of the depredations upon the 
cargo committed by the parties placed in charge of the schooner Pepita, by Captain Ucelay, 
which vessel contained part of the supplies of the steamer Virginia and contraband articles. 
For this reason, and that the crew of the Virginia, who were before destitute, might possess 
the means of support, Eeat-Admiral Wilkes has thought proper to take possession of her 
in order that the same may be subject to adjudication when the Virginia shall be tried 
before the prize courts of the United States. 

That the Virginia w T as a confederate vessel at or before entering the anchorage of 
Mugeres, Admiral Wilkes had bufficient proof before proceeding to Havana, which proof 
has since been made conclusive ; and as there is no shadow of evidence to prove her being 
engaged in the slave trade, he considers that she was unjustly seized and merely upon sus- 
picion, and is therefore improperly detained. 

A desire to treat the Mexican authorities as a friendly power and with good will and 
friendship prevented his taking immediate action in the premises; he preferred rather to 
wait a reasonable time, thougn satisfied that there could be no evidence to warrant the 
detention of the Virginia as a slaver ; and this time having been afforded, and no proof 
having been adduce! alter the examination of the Sp.inish crew, be can no longer refrain. 

Upon no consideration, und r the circumstances, can the Virginia be permitted to fall 
into the hands of the confedeiates or escape from capture by us. 
I have the honor to r.tuain your obedient servant, 

F. H. STEVENS, Co>,u,nndtr. 

The Governor of Yucatan. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation, 

Washington, April 15, 1S63. 
The undersigned, charge d'affaires of the United Mexican States, had the 
honor to receive, with the note which the Hon. William II . Seward, Secretary 
of State of the United States, was pleased to address to him on the 13th of 
March last past, the copies therein enclosed of two despatches and their annexes, 
addressed by Eear- Admiral Wilkes to the Navy Department of the United 
States, in regaid to the steamer Noc-Daquy. 

Since then there have come into the hands of the undersigned the official 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 4a 

documents relating to the same affair, which were sent to him by the governor 
of Yucatan, which exhibit in full detail what happened at the island Mugeres in 
the affair of said steamer. 

After a minute examination of these documents, and of the circumstances of 
the case, the undersigned regrets he finds himself obliged to consider the con- 
duct of Rear- Admiral Wilkes as aggressive to the sovereignty of the Mexican 
nation, which to a certain extent the said rear-admiral admits in his despatch 
No. 5, of the 18th of January last, although endeavoring to extenuate the enor- 
mity of the violation of the rights of Mexico. 

From the report which the governor of Yucatan made to the minister of 
foreign relations of Mexico under date of the 23d of February last, of which 
the undersigned transmits a copy, it appears that as soon as the said governor 
received intelligence that a steamer was at anchor at the island Mugeres, whose 
movements caused suspicion, and that she proved to be the Noc Daquy, he 
commissioned Don Nicolas Urcelay, captain of the national guard, to go to that 
place with an armed force in order to capture the steamer, and notified the court 
of the district of Yucatan for its information, and that it might order such 
measures as it deemed proper in the case. 

This determination appears by the despatch addressed by the governor of 
Yucatan to the district judge the 10th of December, 1862, of which the under- 
signed sends copy. By this action the steamer was from that moment subject 
to the jurisdiction of the said tribunal. 

Captain Urcelay arrived with his force at island Mugeres, and took possession 
of the steamer without any resistance, hoisted the Mexican flag on her, and sent 
the crew under arrest to Sisal, whence they were sent to Merida at the disposal 
of the governor of the state, who turned them over to the district judge, who 
was already cognizant of the affair, when Captain Urcelay, in carrying out the 
decision of the district court, of which the undersigned encloses a copy, attempted 
to take the Noc Daquy, together with the Spanish schooner Pepita, which had 
come from the Havana with articles for said steamer, for which reason she also 
was taken, there appeared in the Mexican waters two ships-of-war of the United 
States, under the command of Rear- Admiral Wilkes, who took upon him to 
possess himself of the steamer, alleging that she was intended for the service of 
the insurgents of the south. Captain Urcelay, in view of the circumstances, 
coerced by superior force, and assuming authority which he had not, made an 
arrangement with of Rear- Admiral Wilkes, by virtue of which he took charge of 
the steamer, placing a guard on her, and engaging to restore her as soon as the 
competent Mexican authority should declare her to be a slaver. 

Captain Urcelay left his force on board the steamer, and went to Merida to 
make report of the proceeding to the district court. 

Thus far the undersigned finds accordances at the bottom of the reports of the 
governor of Yucatan and of Rear- Admiral Wilkes, although they may vary in 
some details, and although many of the expressions of Rear- Admiral Wilkes 
are as offensive to the dignity and good name of Mexico as they are groundless 
and unjust. Rear-Admiral Wilkes allows himself to say that Captain Urcelay 
had neither appointment nor commission ; that he gathered an armed force and 
took possession of the steamer, as if this were done of his own motion and not 
under instructions from the Mexican authorities. On this point, however, the 
undersigned cannot doubt that the official declaration of the governor of 
Yucatan deserves more credit from the government of the United States than 
the suspicions of Rear- Admiral Wilkes, growing out of what some one or other 
may have told him. 

The rear-admiral relates in this manner what afterwards happened : that he 

went to Havana to coal, and on his return to the island Mugeres he found no 

answer had been received from the governor of Yucatan, although the fixed time 

of ten days, which he assures us was settled in the agreement to receive such 

fl. Ex. Doc. 11 4 



50 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

reply, had expired ; that he sent Commander Stevens in the United States 
steamer Sonoma to Sisal for the purpose of ascertaining the cause of delay in 
proceedings which had been set on foot for ascertaining whether the Noc Daquy 
was engaged in the slave trade. The rear-admiral continues: "In such case," 
(that it were not proved that she was engaged in such traffic,) he notifies Com- 
mander Stevens that he must inform the authorities that " I did not consider 
myself bound any further by the agreement, the time having expired, and that 
I should act as if the vessel was * * * confederate, laden with contraband 
of war, and with intent to run the blockade, and if she succeeded in this, would 
probably be armed as a confederate corsair," for which he thought her well 
adapted. 

In this alone there is, in the opinion of the undersigned, cause more than 
sufficient to regard the conduct of Rear-Admiral Wilkes not only as contrary 
to the teachings of international law, but as an open violation of the sovereignty 
of Mexico. 

The undersigned does not believe that it can possibly be doubted that the 
island Mugeres belongs to Mexico — that the bay in that island where the Noc 
Daquy was fallen in with is among the territorial waters of the republic — still 
less that sovereignty over the territorial waters of a nation belongs wholly to its 
government. As little can the undersigned believe the fact can be questioned that 
on the coming of Rear-Admiral Wilkes into the waters of island Mugeres, the 
Noc Daquy was subjected to the jurisdiction of the Mexican tribunals, which 
placed her doubly under the shield of the Mexican sovereignty. 

Under these circumstances, the taking possession of the steamer by forces of 
the United States is a proceeding which the undersigned permits himself to 
call highly irregular. 

In the agreement, by virtue of which Rear-Admiral Wilkes took possession 
of the Noc Daquy, it was stipulated that she should rest at the disposal of the 
Mexican authorities, alone competent in the matter. The literal words of said 
agreement, of which the undersigned has the honor to transmit a copy, are as- 
follows: '' It is stipulated * * * that for the better security and pro- 
tection of the steamer now at this place, of her cargo, and property on board 
of her, Admiral Wilkes shall take possession of her with a sufficient guard until 
the Mexican government may decide what is the character of said steamer, and 
whether or no she be a slaver; and if the government decide that she is, then 
the steamer shall be delivered to the Mexican government." The rear-admiral 
asserts that the term within which the decision was to be made was ten days ; 
and even excluding the idea that had a time been limited, it would have been an 
absurd stipulation : such a term was not stipulated in the so-called agreement, 
for although in the second clause of such paper the expression ten days is men- 
tioned, it is done with reference to the schooner Pepita, and indicating only that 
Rear-Admiral Wilkes would return from the Havana within the period mentioned. 
Rear-Admiral Wilkes, by giving, without doubt, a mostforced interpretation, which 
nothing can justify, to the clause mentioned, adopted this pretext to keep the 
steamer, and sent to Sisal to Commander Stevens that he could notify the gov- 
ernor of Yucatan that he could not wait any longer time for the solution of the 
culpability or inculpability of the steamer; that he did not consider himself any 
longer bound by the compromise he had made with Captain Urcelay, as well 
because of the delay specified, as because such agreement had been violated by 
depredations which he averred had been committed on the cargo of the schooner 
Pepita, in care of a force of Captain Urcelay 's which had taken possession of 
the schooner; that he had the certainty that the steamer was destined for the 
service of the insurgents; that there was no reason for regarding her as a slaver, 
and he had resolved to make her prize of the squadron of his command. 

Commander Stevens did not go to the place where the governor of Yucatan 
was — absent at the time from the capital of the State; he contented himself 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 51 

with sending him a communication, and without awaiting any answer, went 
back to island Mugeres. Immediately after the return of Commander Stevens, 
Rear- Admiral Wilkes made out that he left the steamer absolutely at liberty ; 
he made the crew take her outside of the Mexican waters and raise the insur- 
gent's flag, captured her, and ordered her to Key "West, leaving the schooner 
Pepita, (after having taken her cargo into possession,) which was afterwards 
taken to Sisal. The accuracy of these acts is confirmed by the relation Rear- 
Admiral Wilkes gives of them in his despatch No. 5, as cited. 

After this narrative, proved by official documents, and even by the despatches 
of Rear- Admiral Wilkes, there can be no question the said rear-admiral violated 
the sovereignty of Mexico by taking from under it, through devices unworthy 
an officer of his rank, a prize that was in subjection to the jurisdiction of the 
Mexican courts, and attempting previously to impose terms and a rule of conduct, 
at his pleasure, upon those very tribunals. 

It is not hidden from the undersigned that Rear- Admiral Wilkes alleges in 
justification of his inexcusable conduct that the Noc Daquy was a confederate 
vessel that was to run the blockade of the southern ports, and that there was 
no proof at all that she was engaged in the slave trade. Excluding from view 
that the Mexican courts were those alone which could make such a declaration, 
the undersigned cannot abstain from noting the contradiction into which Rear- 
Admiral Wilkes falls by saying in his cited despatch that the bay of island 
Mugeres is a point frequented by slavers, and that, undoubtedly, the Noc Daquy 
had been in the trade. Moreover, the undersigned believes it to be his duty to 
state to the government of the United States that not only the charge of being 
a slaver weighed against the Noc Daquy, but also that of having violated the 
revenue laws of the Mexican ports, on both which accounts the proper proceed- 
ings at law were being taken. 

The honorable Secretary of State appears to entertain the same opinion as 
Rear-Admiral Wilkes in respect to the Noc Daquy being the property of southern 
insurgents, and intended to run the blockade, as appears in the note which he 
did the undersigned the honor to address to him, dated the 6th of March. But 
in such event, if fully established, and further, even in case the vessel had been 
armed for a cruise by the rebels, Rear- Admiral Wilkes should not have arro- 
gated the powers which he touk. His duty would have been to await the 
sentence of the courts of Mexico, and if in virtue of such the steamer were set 
at liberty, to arrange for her capture when she should have left the territorial 
waters of Mexico. 

Rear-Admiral Wilkes, moreover, usurped powers inherent to the national 
sovereignty of Mexico, in taking depositions and exercising judicial acts on 
Mexican territory, in flagrant violation of the laws of the republic. 

The said rear-admiral did not confine himself to committing violations referred 
to, but also took possession of the schooner Pepita, which Captain Urcelay had 
previously taken possession of with a Mexican force. He landed, and abusing 
his power, took the crew which the Pepita had brought from the Havana for 
the Noc Daquy, and which was under detention by the Mexican authorities, and 
subject to the orders of the proper courts. 

In recapitulation, Rear- Admiral Wilkes has violated the rights of Mexico — 

1st. By having taken possession, within Mexican territory, of a vessel held 
subject to the jurisdiction of the Mexican courts. 

2d. In not having allowed the sentence of the Mexican court in relation to 
the transfer of the Noc Daquy to the port of Sisal to be carried into effect. 

3d. In having deceptively taken the said steamer out of the jurisdiction of 
the Mexican courts. 

4th. In having imposed terms on the Mexican courts. 

5th. In having exercised in Mexican territory judicial acts of the competency 
exclusively of Mexican authorities. 



52 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

6th. In having taken possession of the schooner Pepita, which was in Mexi- 
can territory, held by Mexican soldiers, and subjected to the jurisdiction of the 
Mexican courts. 

7th. In having, by force, taken possession of the crew brought from the Ha- 
vana by the schooner Pepita for the Noc Daquy, which was in Mexican territory 
and subject to the Mexican courts. 

The undersigned cannot doubt for a moment that when the government of 
the United States has intelligence of the facts referred to, and the full proof by 
which they are accompanied, it will hasten to give to Mexico all the satisfaction 
she is justly entitled to for the offences committed against her sovereignty and 
clearest rights by Rear- Admiral Wilkes. 

The undersigned profits by the occasion to repeat to the honorable William 
H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, the assurances of his most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, Sf-c. 



[Translation.] 

Government of the State of Yucatan. 
Having had news that, in the waters of the island Mugeres, a steamer was at anchor, whose 
movements caused suspicion, especially as to her being employed in the slave trade, I gave 
commission to Captain Nicolas Urcelay, of the national guard, to pass over to said point 
with an armed force in order to capture her ; and I gave notice of this to the first judge 
on the civil side of the department of this capital, that he might put in exercise the func- 
tions of the district court, as well for his information as that he might order the measures 
which he should deem belonged to the case. Captain Urcelay arrived with his force at the 
island, and, availing himself of the circumstance of the coming ashore of the crew of said 
steamer — which is Spanish, and called Noc Daquy — took possession of her, without resistance 
of any kind, and hoisted the national flag on her ; but when about to bring her to Sisal, to- 
gether with a schooner, also Spanish, called Pepita, which came from Havana, and which 
he also captured, for having brought merchandise for said steamer, there came in two ves- 
sels-of-war of the United States squadron in the Antilles, and Rear- Admiral Charles Wilkes 
assumed to take possession of the steamer, taking ground upon his having had advice that 
she was sold at Havana under the name Virginia, and had come here bound for service of 
the rebels of the south of that nation. Captain Urcelay, in view of the circumstances in 
which he was placed, thought it prudent to make a stipulation with the said rear-admiral, 
in virtue of which he took charge of the steamer, placing a guard upon her, engaging 
himself to return her as soon as the proper Mexican authority should declare her to be a 
slaver. 

The said Captain Urcelay left his force on board the captured schooner, to take care of 
her, and came himself to this capital, to make report of what happened to the district 
court. That court sent intelligence to me of the event when I was away from the capital, 
inspecting the fortified positions of our line of defence against the insurgent Indians, and, as 
soon as I received the communication, I addressed a note to Rear- Admiral Wilkes, making, 
in the name of the supreme government, the proper reclamation against the violation he 
had committed of the national territory, and calling his attention to the necessity there 
was that he should leave the steamer to the Mexicau force which had captured her, that 
she might he brought by it to the port of Sisal, that she might there be examined, and 
other measures taken, conducive to the dealing up of the point on which the court could 
base its judgment whether she was or not a slave trader — whether she had or not contra- 
vened the revenue laws of the republic. At a subsequent time the consul of the United 
States at Merida addressed a copy of a despatch from Rear-Admiral Wilkes, and some doc- 
uments, by which he thought to prove the steamer to be a slaver, and also destined for the 
confederate service ; and I sent them to the district court, that they should have their effect 
in the proper 6uit, answering the consul that I had done so, and begging him to sustain 
the application I had addressed to the rear-admiral. 

I remained absent from the capital when Mr. J. E. Stevens, commander of one of the 
vessels of the aforesaid squadron, came there, and for this cause he addressed to me, at 
Valladolid, a communication, in the name of Rear-Admiral Wilkes, that he could not wait 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 53 

any longer for the determination of the culpability or inculpability of the steamer ; that he 
no longer considered himself bound by the compromise he had made with Captain Urcelay, 
as well for the delay settled on as because the compromise was broken by the depredations 
committed on the cargo which, belonging to the steamer, was found on the schooner Pepita, 
guarded by a force placed there by Cap tain Urcelay ; that he therefore had taken possession 
of the schooner ; that the proofs he held amounted to evidence that the steamer was in- 
tended for the confederate service, to such extent that none existed of her being a slaver, 
and that not upon any account would he allow that vessel to fall into the hands of those 
in rebellion to his country, nor that she should be set at liberty from the capture by the 
squadron under his command. Such note was immediately answered, directly to Rear- 
Admiral Wilkes, and with the energy and propriety the national honor required, this gov- 
ernment making proof of the flagrant violation of the law of nations committed by the 
squadron of the United States, and making the proper protests ; but, despite all the steps 
I could take that my communication should pass to the island Mugeres with the greatest 
possible celerity, such was the haste of the American squadron that its commander never 
received it 

Rear- Admiral Wilkes did not restrict himself to extending indefinitely the possession of 
the steamer Noc Daquy, which Captain Urcelay, under an agreement, had conceded to 
him, nor the possession of the schooner Pepita, which that officer had left in the charge 
of the State troops, but lauded, and, by an abuse of his strength, took the crew which the 
schooner had brought from Havana for the steamer, and which was arrested by the au- 
thorities and held subject to the order of the district court. This last operation beirjg 
effected, Rear-Admiral Wilkes pretended that he left the steamer at absolute liberty, and 
when she left our waters he captured her, and without doubt sent her to the United States, 
leaving behind — although after having taken possession of her cargo — the schooner Pepita, 
which was brought to Sisal, and placed at the disposal of the district court. 

All in relation to this appears in the official documents which I have the honor to trans- 
mit to you in copy, that the supreme government, possessing itself of the scandalous vio- 
lation of the national territory committed by the said Rear- Admiral Wilkes, of the United 
States squadron in the Antilles, may please to issue suitable reclamations to whom it may 
be proper. Under which impression I send copies similar to the annexed to the citizen 
minister plenipotentiary of the republic near the United States, through the channel of the 
consul general resident at New York, that, on his part, he may take such action as he may 
deem opportune. 

I have the honor to renew to you the assurances of my particular esteem and con- 
sideration. 

Liberty and reform. Merida, February 23, 1863. 

L. IRIGOYEN. 

A. REJON, Secretary. 

To the Consul Genebal of the Mexican Republic at New York. 

Washington, April 15, 1863. 
A copy : ^ 

M. ROMERO. 



[Translation.] 

Division of Operations. 

General- in-Chief : The citizen general, military commandant and captain of the poit 
of Sisal, tells me in an official note dated 8th instant: 

Citizen Governor : Yesterday I copied for you the report made to me, dated 4th instant, 
by the head of the registration of the island Mugeres, referring to the steamer which under 
the Spanish flag appeared at that port on the 28th of the month last past, and to-day have 
ascertained, through the captain and supercargo of the English schooner Clyde, that ar- 
rived at Mugeres island the same day, (the 4th,) that the steamer in question remained in 
port at that date, and that it is known long time since that she is engaged in the oppro- 
brious and infamous traffic in slaves on the coast of Africa. The captain of the Clyde assures 
me, as well as various other persons of this port, that the said steamer is the same which 
was at Campeachy two years ago, a trifle more or less, taking on board as captain a brother 
of Captain Galindo ; that he came back to Campeachy, or the coast, about five months 
since, and is about to repeat his voyage to the same port or coast, as the said captain of 
the Clyde informed me. As it is not difficult to ascertain in what business the said vessel 
may be engaged by the water casks and other effects, which reveal that criminal commerce, 



54 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

I think it my duty to make it known to you, that if you think proper you may denounce 
the fact to the authorities of Campeachy, who without doubt will act in conformity with 
the spirit of the treaties made between Mexico and the powers interested in pursuing and 
punishing that odious traffic. And as it may be considered that the investigation of the 
perious business, to which this note is confined, may belong to the attributes of the juris- 
diction under your worthy charge, I refer it to you that you may at once act in the case as 
to you may seem fit, it being my duty to inform you, first, that I have enclosed this com- 
munication to the governor of Campeachy for the purposes he may judge proper on his 
part ; and, second, that I have ordered the seizure of the vessel referred to, and also the 
captain and crew, by means of the revenue cutter of Sisal and citizen Nicolas Ureelay, in 
command of another commissioned cutter. 

Liberty and reform ! 

LIBOEIO IRIGOYEN. 

Merida, December 10, 1862. 

To the Judge of the Court of First Instance 

of the civil and revenue branch of this capital. 



A copy 



True copy : 



Merida, February 9, 1863. 

VISTO BUENO. 

IRIGOYEN. 

LUIS GUTIEREEZ, Secretary. 

Washington, April 15, 1863. 
ROMERO. 



[Translation.] 

SECRETARIAT GENERAL OF THE GOVERNMENT OF YUCATAN. — GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OFTUCATAN. 

The General-in-Chief : In a despatch of to-day the first judge of the civil and revenue 
side in this department tells me what follows: "This court not having advice of the result 
of the orders which you informed me you had issued for the seizure of the slave steamer 
which was found at the island Mugeres, I hope you will please to order an officer, with 
sufficient number of troops, to bring her to Sisal for the purpose that may seem adequate 
to the case, and to avoid any risk at the point where she is " I send this to you, that, in 
passing the port of Silam, or any other on the coast, he may there obtain, through the 
authorities and marine officers, a cutter and ten or twelve seamen, with whom he will go 
to island Mugeres, and presenting this official note to the guard on board the revenue cut- 
ter and to the commissioner, Captain Nicolas Urcelay, they may obey the order which you 
have given to make sail on the steamer Noc Daquy, to bring her to the port of Sisal with 
all her crew and whatever belongs to the said vessel, as the persons employed under ante- 
rior orders are already notified, which seem to be neglected, for which reason you will give 
them to understand that they are liable, and if they do not discharge their duty with ex- 
actness, will be held responsible for whatever their conduct may give occasion before the 
c ; tizen judge of first instance referred to, to whom I send copy of this note 

Liberty and reform ! 

L. IRIGOYEN. 

Merida December 30, 1862. 

In presence of : 

THOMAS QUIJCINO, 

Citizen, Commanding Battalion. 

Merida, January 29, 1863. 
Copy : 

A. REJON, Secretary. 

Washington, April 15, 1863. 
A copy : 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 55 



[Translation.] 

secretabiat general of the government of tucatan. 

Steamer Wachtjsett, Island of Mugeres, 

December 29, 1862. 

It is stipulated, and agreeable to Admiral Wilkes, commanding the western squadron, 
and Captain Nicolas Urcelay, of the Mexican troops at this point, that for the better secu- 
rity and protection of the steamer now at this port, and also of the cargo and property 
aboard of said steamer, that Admiral Wilkes shall take possession of her with a sufficient 
guard until the Mexican government may decide what is the character of said steamer, and 
see if she be or not a slaver ; and if the government decide that she is, then the steamer 
shall be delivered to the Mexican government. Also, as there is anchored here the schooner 
Pepita, connected with the said steamer, it is stipulated for the Mexican government, by 
Captain Nicolas Urcelay, that the said schooner 6hall remain at anchor in this port until 
Admiral Wilkes may return in ten, or fewer, days, or may send a substitute authorized by 
him. 

CHARLES WILKES, 
Admiral, Commanding the Squadron of the Western Islands of the United States of the North. 

NICOLA.S URCELAY, 
Captain of the National Forces at this place. 

Merida, February 23, 1863. 
A copy .: 

A. REJON, Secretary. 

Washington, April 15, 1863. 
A copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 5. — Affairs on the frontiers of Mexico. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward.. February 26, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero March 10, 1863 

Same to same, (with one enclosure) April 2, 1863 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin, (with two enclosures) ' May 12, 1863 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward February 4, 1864 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero February 9, 1864 

Same to same, (with seven enclosures) March 12, 1864 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward March 15, 1S64 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation] 

Mexican Legation, 
Washington, February 26, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary: The Mexican consul at Oownsville, Texas, and the vice- 
consul of Mexico at Franklin, New Mexico, have frequently complained to 
this legation on account of the unjustly depressed and miserable condition in 
which Mexicans resident in the State of Texas and the Territory of New- 
Mexico are held, whom it is sought to compel to serve in the army of the Uni- 
ted States, or in that of the insurgents, or to subject to other undue burdens, 
in violation of the rights they hold as foreigners. 

Having submitted said reports to my government, the secretary for foreign 
relations of the republic has communicated to me the instructions of the president 



56 MEXICAN AFFAIR?. 

on this subject, in which he recommends me to call the attention of the govern- 
ment of the United States to the situation of Mexican citizens resident on the 
frontier of the United States. He also recommends that I solicit from the gov- 
ernment of the United States the issue of decided orders to Colonel West, 
commander of the expedition sent to Arizona, and to the commander of the 
forces of the United States in Kew Mexico, and to that of the expedition which 
is going to Texas, to act so as to preserve to the Mexicans the consideration and 
franchises which the universal law of nations and the conventional law between 
Mexico and the United States guarantee to them. 

In thus complying with the instructions I have received from my govern- 
ment, I avail of the opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 8fc., Sfc., Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 10,'1863. 
Sir : I have the honor to inform you that I have transmitted a translation of 
your note of the 26th ultimo, respecting the condition of the Mexican citizens 
on the frontier of the United States, to the Secretary of War, whose reply 
shall be immediately communicated to you. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Don Matias Romero, fyc., Sfc., Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 2, 1863. 

Sir : Referring to your note of the 26th of February ultimo, inviting the atten- 
tion of this government to certain alleged hardships to which Mexican citizens 
residing on the frontier of Texas are subjected, I have the honor to inform you 
that, having submitted your communication to the Secretary of War, I have re- 
ceived a reply upon the subject, dated the 27th ultimo, a copy of which I here- 
with enclose, availing myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurances of 
my high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Matias Romero, 5fc., Sfc., Sfc. 



WAR DEPABTMF.NT, 

Washington City, March 27, 1R63. 
Sir: Your communication of the 10th instant, enclosing the translation of a note from 
the Mexican charge d'arl'airs, calling attention to the situation of Mexican citizens residing 
on the frontiers, has been duly considered, and I have now the honor to state that this 
department has no information in relation to the treatment of Mexican citizens in the 
State of Texas, and can see no remedy for the evils complained of until that State returns 
to her allegiance or is occupied by the United States troops. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 57 

It is very probable that Mexican citizens, as well as citizens of the United States, in New 
Mexico, were ill-treated by the rebels in their invasion of that Territory, but as the govern- 
ment has made no draft in New Mexico, no person, either citizen or foreign, could be 
received into the military service of the United States except by voluntary enlistment. 

The commanding generals in New Mexico and in Arizona are both intelligent and discreet 
officers, and, in the absence of any specific charges or evidence, it must be presumed that 
they have not done or permitted so unauthorized an act as to force Mexican citizens into 
the military service of the United States. 

Officers have been and will be cautioned to carefully respect the rights and property of 
resident foreigners, who render no aid or assistance to the enemy. 
Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 



Hon. William H Sewaed, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 



EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwm. 



No. 74] Department of State, 

Washington, May 12, 1863. 

Sir : In February last, Mr. Romero, eharge d'affaires of Mexico, brought to 
my attention certain complaints which had been made to him by the Mexican 
consul at Brownsville, Texas, and the vice-consul at Franklin, New Mexico, 
of forcible impressments of Mexican citizens, residing in the Territory of New 
Mexico, into the military service of the United States. The subject was im- 
mediately laid before the Secretary of War, whose reply was communicated to 
Mr. Romero on the 2d of April, and by him, doubtless, transmitted to his 
government. 

The Secretary of War has, by a letter of the 5th instant, received to-day, 
laid before me a copy of a communication addressed to the general-in-chief by 
Brigadier General Carlton, commanding in New Mexico, upon the same sub- 
ject, a copy of which I enclose to you, as Mr. Romero has taken leave of the 
government and is now en route to his home. 

You will be pleased to communicate a copy of this document to the Mexican 
government. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas Cor win, Esq., Sfc, fyr., fyc, Mexico. 



War Department, 
Washington City, D. 0., May 5, 1863. 
Sir: In connexion with my communication of March 27, in relation to the complaint of 
the Mexican charge - d'affaires of the impressment into the United States military service of 
citizens of Mexico, in New Mexico, I have the honor to transmit a copy of a letter on this 
subject from Brigadier General J. H. Carlton, commanding department of New Mexico. 
Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 
The Secretary oe State, Washington, D. G. 

Headquarters Department of New Mfxico, 

Santa Fe, N. M., April 10, 1863. 

General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th ultimo, 
and to say in reply that, to my knowledge, no citizen of Mexico has been impressed into 
the military service of the United States within the department of New Mexico. 



58 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

A copy of your letter has been sent to Brigadier General West, commanding the district 
of Arizona, within this department, headquarters Hart's Mills, Texas, with these instructions : 
" I enclose herewith an official copy of a letter from the general-in-chief in relation to a 
communication made by the Mexican charge d'affaires, complaining that citizens of Mexico 
had been impressed into the military service of the United States in New Mexico. You 
will be careful that no violation of the international rights of Mexican citizens occurs in 
your district." 

As no soldiers of any nationality have been impressed into the military service of the 
United States within this department, that part of the complaint relating to New Mexico 
falls to the ground of its own weight. 

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfullv, your obedient servant, 

"JAMES H. (JARLION, 

Brigadier General Commanding. 
Major General Henkt W. Halleck, 

General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, Washington, D. C. 

War Department, May 5, 1863. 
Official copy : 

ED. R. S. CANBT, 

Brigadier General, A. A. G. 



Mr. Romero to Mr Seward. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation, 
Washington, February 4, 1864. 

The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the 
United Mexican States, has the honor to call the attention of the Hon. William 
H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America, to events whWi 
have recently taken place on the eastern frontier of Mexico and the United 
States. 

It appears that the arrival of the United States expedition at the city of 
Brownsville, in the State of Texas, which had, until then, been in the possession 
of the secessionists, in place of producing the good results which were to be 
expected, because it was naturally to be supposed that a considerable force sent 
by this government, and operating under its direct instructions, would be the 
most complete safeguard of the fundamental principles of the laws of nations and 
of the stipulations of treaties which connect Mexico with the United States, has 
gone on producing disturbances and misunderstandings which neither the under- 
signed nor his government could anticipate or expect. 

The undersigned will permit himself to call the attention of the honorable 
Secretary of State of the United States to a communication, and the menaces 
contained in it, addressed from Brownsville the 26th of December last by Major 
General N. J. F. Dana, who commands in chief the United States forces in Texas, 
to the governor of the State of Tamaulipas, in the Mexican republic, because 
of a loan which was said to be imposed by the said functionary on various 
merchants resident at Matamoras, among whom, it is averred, were found some 
citizens of the United States, which communication has been published by 
various papers in New York, running along the month of January last past. 

The undersigned flatters himself with the belief that the government of the 
United States is very far from approving the principles of protection which that 
government has the right to grant to citizens of the United States resident in a 
foreign country in the mode in which General Dana presents them in the pen- 
ultimate paragraph of his above-cited communication. The undersigued will 
abstain at present from comment on the proceedings of the said General Dana 
in respect to this incident which are related in letters published in the journals 
of New York from their correspondents in Matamoras, because, besides not be- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 69 

ing at present fully proven, in his opinion, in an authentic manner, he awaits in- 
structions from his government. 

There has subsequently happened, nevertheless, an incident of such nature 
that the undersigned considers it to be his duty to denounce it at once to the 
government of the United States. From the Matamoras correspondence last 
published in the daily papers of this country it appears that, in consequence of a 
local disturbance stirred up in that city, on the 12th of January last past, be- 
tween two military leaders who acknowledge the authority and act under the 
orders of the Mexican government, General Herron, who commanded accidentally 
the forces of the United States at Brownsville, thought proper to send into the 
Mexican territory the 20th Wisconsin regiment, the 10th Iowa, and the 94th 
Illinois, with a battery, which troops penetrated the city of Matamoras while 
the disturbance was going on. 

The undersigned cannot but consider this step as a. flagrant violation of 
Mexican sovereignty; and it appears to him the less explicable because the 
honorable Secretary of State, in some instructions which he addressed to General 
Banks on the 23d November last, and which have lately been published, in re- 
lation to the manner in which he should act in difficulties which might arise 
with Mexico, says to him : 

' ' You will protect citizens of the United States in Texas against all enemies, domestic or 
foreign, that may be met in that country. You will be on your guard, nevertheless, not to 
enter Mexican territory unless it be temporarily, and that the step be fully justified by the 
necessity of protecting the lives of our soldiers against any aggression which may come from 
the frontier of Mexico." 

Well, then, it is certain that no aggression, proceeding from Mexican territory, 
menaced the lives of the soldiers of General Banks on the happening at Mata- 
moras of the local disorder of which the undersigned has made mention. 

Reserving the expectation of instructions from his government on this delicate 
business that he may then present to the United States government the demands 
he may be charged with, and ask the amends to which Mexico may have right, 
he now addresses himself to the honorable Secretary of State, desirous of re- 
ceiving the explanations Mr. Seward may deem fit to give to him, which shall 
be transmitted to the Mexican government, in whose mind they will contribute 
to calm the bad impression which the proceedings of General Herron may have 
occasioned. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the honorable 
William A. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America, the 
assurances of his most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 8fc., fyc, Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, February 9, 1864. 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 4th 
instant, directing my attention to events which have recently taken place on 
the eastern frontier of the United States and Mexico. 

Having no official information upon the subject referred to, I have transmitted 
a translation of your communication to the Secretary of War for the necessary 
investigation, after the receipt of which I shall be enabled to reply to your note. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Sen or Don Matias Romero, fyc, fyc, Sfc. 



60 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, March 12, 1864. 

Sir: I have the honor, on this occasion, to recur to the note which you ad- 
dressed to me on the 4th of February last, in which, among other things, you 
asked for information concerning certain unusual proceedings of General Herron 
in sending an armed force from Brownsville, in Texas, across the Rio Grande 
and into the city of Matamoras, on the occasion of disturbance that occurred 
there on the 12th of January last, between two persons whom you represented 
as military leaders, each of whom acknowledges the authority and acts under 
the orders of the Mexican government. 

In the aforementioned note you were pleased to express the opinion that the 
proceeding of General Herron was a flagrant violation of Mexican sovereignty, 
and quite inconsistent with the orders which had been previously given by this 
government to Major General Banks, commanding on the Mexican frontier, 
with reference to the republic of Mexico. 

On the 9th of February last I had the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your aforementioned note, and to say that, having no official information upon 
the subject you had therein presented, I had transmitted it to the Secretary of 
War with a view to the necessary investigation of the matter. I have since 
that day received from the Secretary of War certain papers which bear upon 
the transaction, but have not yet received a full report thereupon. Desirous to 
act with perfect good faith and reasonable diligence in regard to the complaint 
you have preferred, I think it not improper to place in your hands, at this time, 
the papers which are now before me, namely : the report of the transaction of 
the 12th of January last, made by Major General Banks, together with the 
documents appended to the same. To these papers I annex an extract from 
a despatch which was transmitted to the department by L. Pierce, esquire, 
United States consul at Matamoras, on the 16th of January last. It appears 
from these papers that the movement of which you complain was made at the 
instance and with the consent and approval of the Mexican authorities, and was 
strictly limited to the protection of the United States consul at Matamoras, 
against apprehended assaults which the Mexican authorities were unable to 
prevent. 

It is my duty further to inform you that the imperial government of France 
has now asked explanations upon the same subject, upon the ground that the 
proceeding of General Herron was an intervention in the interest of Mexico 
and against the army of France. 

A copy of the note of the minister of France is herewith submitted. While 
this government is waiting for the more full and complete report which is neces- 
sary, in order to decide upon the conflicting claims of Mexico and France, it 
will cheerfully receive any information you may think it desirable to furnish 
to this department. 

To guard against misapprehension, I think it proper to say that a complaint, 
which was presented by you in your aforementioned note agaiust certain pro- 
ceedings of General Dana, is left out of view in this connexion, because I am 
awaiting the results of an investigation which has been instituted by the Secre- 
tary of War. 

I will add that General Banks has again been specially charged to do what- 
ever is practicable to avoid any collision between the forces under his command 
and either of the belligerents in Mexico, and even to guard, so far as may be 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 61 

possible, against suffering any occasion to arise for dispute or controversy be- 
tween his command or the authorities of Texas, and either or both these parties. 

I avail myself of this occasion to offer to you a renewed assurance of my 
high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Selior Matias Romero, 8fc, Sfc., fyc. 



War Department, 
Washington City, Ftbruary 10, 1864. 
Sir: The Secretary of War instructs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
yesterday, transmitting a translation of a note addressed to you on the 4th instant by 
Sen >r Matias Romero, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United 
Mexican States, inviting attention to a publication iu the New York journals during the 
month of January last, purporting to be a communication containing menaces addressed 
from Brownsville on the 26th December by Major General N. T. J. Dana, then commanding 
the United States forces in Texas, to the governor of Tamaulipas, in the Mexican republic; 
and also to the Matamoras correspondence, published in the daily papers, in which it is 
stated that Major General Herron, now commanding the United States forces at Browns- 
ville, had sent troops into the city of Matamoras during local disturbances in that city, in 
violation of Mexican sovereignty. 

In regard to the alleged violation of the Mexican territory by United States forces acting 
under the orders of Major General Herron, the Secretary instructs me to transmit, for your 
information, the enclosed copy of a communication, this day received, addressed to the 
general-in-chief by Major General Banks, commanding the department of the Gulf, and its 
accompaniments, which present a detailed account of the circumstances under which the 
temporary presence of the United States troops in Matamoras was deemed imperative for the 
protection of the United States consulate in that city. 

On the subject of the alleged letter of menace addressed by Major General N. T. J 
Dana from Brownsville to the governor of Tamaulipas, this department has at present no 
knowledge. As soon as any information on the subject is received it will be communicated 
to you. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

ED. E. S. CANBY, 
Brigadier General, A. A. G. 
The Secretary of State, 

Washington, D. C. 



Headquarters Department of the Gulf, 
New Orleans, January 25, 1864. 
General: I have the honor to transmit to you copies of despatches received from Major 
General F. J Herron, commanding the forces of the United States on the Rio Grande, and 
giving in detail an account of affairs occurring on the 13th of January. I enclose also a 
copy of letter of instructions written to General Herron, by which you will see that the 
despatch of ihe Secretary of State, with an indorsement of the Secretary of War, was given 
to him for his guidance before he assumed command. The movement of troops into 
Matamoras seems to have been necessary to enable the consul to leave the city 

N. P. BANKS, 



Major General H. W. Halleck, 

General-in-Chief U. S. A. , Washington, D. C. 

Official copy: 



Major General Commanding. 



J. C. KELTON, A. A. G. 



Headquarters United States Forces on the Rio Grande, 

Brownsville, Texas, January 16, 1864. 
General : I enclose herewith my report in reference to sending troops to the other side 
of the river for the protection of the United States consulate, and, believing it will interest 
you, I add some other facts in connexion with the matter. 



62 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Upon arriving here I found Serna established as governor of Tamaulipas ; but Ruiz, who 
had been appointed military governor by Juarez, was moving on Matamoras with 600 men. 
Colonel Cortinas was in command of the Serna forces. Arriving near the town, commis- 
sioners from the two parties met and settled the matter in this way : Serna to retire to his 
rancho, Ruiz to take his seat as governor, the troops of both parties to uuite under General 
Casistran (a Ruiz man) with Cortinas as second in command, and to march against the 
French at Tampico. Serna at once vacated ; Ruiz took his seat ; and the troops of both 
parties were camped in the town As near as I can learn, the agreement was violated in 
several particulars by both parties, and considerable feeling was created. On the afternoon 
of the 12th, about 4 o'clock, Cardenas, an officer of Colonel Cortinas, rode to Governor 
Ruiz's house and insulted him ; was arrested by the guard, carried into a back yard and 
shot within half an hour. This settled the matter, and, at 8 o'clock the same evening, 
the parties opened on each other with artillery in the plaza. 

The fight continued throughout the night and until 12 o'clock the next day. During 
the night, at times, the musketry was severe, and I should say 250 shots were fired with 
artillery. Mr Pierce was satisfied that an attempt would be made to rob the consulate, 
and had great apprehension for his family. The governor having officially notified me that 
he could not protect him, and believing that I could remove him without complicating 
matters, I sent troops over, feeling satisfied that, under the ciicumstauces, I was only 
doing my duty. 

Duiing the fight the town and the road leading to the ferry were filled with robbers 
doing a good business, and, had Mr. Pierce attempted to cross without a guard, he would 
have been robbed if not murdered. Both partus are perfectly satisfied with my action, 
although Ruiz complains somewhat that I did not aid him, claiming that the Mexican 
troops once aided the citizens of Brownsville in repelling an attack of this same Cortinas. 
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

F. J. HERRON, 
Major General Commanding. 
C. P. STONE, 
Brigadier General, Chief -of- Staff. 

Major General N. P. Banks, 

Com do Department of the Gulf. 

Headquarters, February 3, 1864. 
Official copy : 

J. C. KELTON, A. A. G. 



Headquarters United Status Forces on the Rio Grande, 

Brownsville, Texas, Junuaiy 15, 1S64. 

General : I have the honor to make the following report of circumstances that transpired 
on the night of the 13th instant. 

Abuut 8 o'clock in the evening we were startled by rapid cannonading and musketry 
firing, evidently going on in the streets of Matamoras. just across the Rio Grande, which 
continued without cessation, and spreading over the greater portion of the town, until 10 
o'clock. 

At thi- hour I received the following communication from Mr. L. Pierce, jr., United 
States consul at Matamoras : 

United States Consulate, 
Matamoras, Mexico, January 12, 1864 — 10 o'aockp. m. 
General : A battle is now raging in the streets of this city between the forces of Governor 
Manuel Ruiz and Colonel Juan N. Cortinas. My person and family are in great danger, 
as the road between here and the ferry is said to be infested with robbers. I have, also, 
about one million dollars in specie and a large amount of valuable property under my 
charge in the consulate, and, from the well-known character of Cortinas and his followers, 
I fear the city will be plundered. I therefore earnestly request that you will send a 
sufficient force to protect myself and property, and to transport the money within the 
limits of the United States at the earliest moment possible. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



L. PIERCE, Jr., 

United Slates Consul. 



Maj ir General F. J. Herron, 

Com'dg United Statea Forces, Brownsville, Texas. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 63 

Within a very few moments the following, from Governor Manuel Ruiz, was handed to 
me : 

Matamoras, January 12, 1864 — 10 o'clock p.m. 
Sir: The forces commanded by Colonel Cortinas have attacked my position in this 
place As this town is very extensive, I cannot protect or guarantee the United States 
consulate and the large property of American citizens of different nations living in this 
town. For this reason I shall endeavor to repulse the enemy, and ask yon the favor to 
send some troops over to guard and protect the said property, which it is impossible for 
me to protect. 

I ask you, general, to take this application of mine in high consideration, and to admit 
my profound respects. 

Your obedient servant, 

MANUEL RUIZ, Governor of Tamaulipas. 
Major General F. J. Herron. 

I had, immediately after the firing commenced, despatched an officer (Colonel Black, 
37th Illinois infantry) to the United States consulate with instructions to inform me 
at once of the condition of affairs, and hearing from him, also, that the road was infested 
with robbers who were taking advantage of the fighting to rob and murder, and that the 
family of the consul could not get away without a guard, and the legal governor, recognized 
by President Juarez, having informed, officially, that he could not protect him, I deemed it 
not inconsistent with my instructions to send a small force into the city of Matamoras for the 
purpose of removing the family of Mr. Pierce and the specie to this side of the river. I 
therefore ordered (Jolonel Henry Bertram, 20th Wisconsin infantry, to send forty men to 
take charge of the ferry, to put one regiment under arms, and call at my headquarters 
for further orders. Upon reporting, I instructed him to take four companies of his regi- 
ment acioss the river and proceed to the United States consulate and there make proper 
disposition of his force to protect the United States consul and his property, and to re- 
move them, at the earliest possible time, to this side of the river; instructing him at the 
same time, in the most positive maimer, not to inteifere in the fight. 

I then replied to Governor Ruiz as follows : 

Headquarters United States Forces on the Rio Grande, 

Brownsville, Texas, January 12, 1864 — 10^ o'clock p. m. 

Sir: Your note dated Matamoras, 10 o'clock p. m., is at hand. Mr. Pierce, the United 
States consul, wrote at 10 o'clock, urging me to send a force to protect the United States 
consulate, and at his request I despatched Colonel Bertram with a small force to the con- 
sul's house to protect him in moving to this side of the river. 

The troops have positive instructions not to interfere with either persons or property, 
and to take no part in the fight. They will protect the consulate until safely removed. 

Regretting exceedingly the troubles which surround you, and with the hope that you 
may soon quiet matters, 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

F. J. HERRON, 
Mjor General, Commanding. 
Governor Manuel Ruiz. 

At the same time I wrote Mr. Pierce, informing him of the instructions given to Colonel 
Bertram, and requesting him to prepare for removal at once. I also sent the following 
notification to Governor Ruiz, sending a similar one to Colonel Cortinas : 

Headquarters United States forces on the Rio Grande, 

Brownsville, Texas, January 12, 1864 — 10£ o'clock p.m. 

Sir: I have the honor to state, that owing to a battle now raging in the streets of Mat- 
amoras, between your troops and those of Colonel Cortinas, and the danger existing to the 
person and family of Mr. Pierce, United States consul, I have ordered Colonel Bertram 
with four companies of United States troops to proceed to the house of Mr. Pierce, at his 
request, for the sole and only purpose of conveying them within the territory of the United 
States. The danger from assassins and robbers on the road between here and your city 
seems imperatively to demand this course, which I take reluctantly, with every assurance 
to you that I shall commit no hostile acts upon Mexican territory, nor interfere in any 
manner with the fight now going on in your city. I have intrusted Mr. Pierce to remove 
as quickly as possible, that I may withdraw the troops. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

F. J. HEREOF, 
Major General, Commanding. 
Governor Manuel Ruiz. 



64 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Colonel Bertram proceeded without delay to the other side of the river, marching hy the 
shortest route to the consulate, and placirig his troops within the yard which is attached to 
the house, and such arrangements were then made as would prevent any possibility of 
interference by our men. 

At 11£ o'clock I received the following note from Colonel Bertram : 

United States Consulate, 
Matamoras, January 12, 1864 — 12.30 o'clock p.m. 

General : I have arrived at the consul's house, and I was sure he wai, very happy to 
see us. I marched the shortest route, the firing having stopped as soon as we appeared in 
the streets. The consul thinks Cortinas is gaining ground. I await further instructions. 
Very respectfully, 

H. BERTRAM, Colonel, Commanding. 
Major General F. J. Hereon, 

Commanding United States Forces. 

To which I replied as follows : 

Headquarters United States Forces on Rio Grande, 

Brownsville, Texas, January 12, 1864. 

Colonel : Your note from the consulate is at hand. You will remain in your position, 
giving the consul sufficient time to remove his family and the valuables in the consulate 
to this side. Again let me state that you will interfere in no way with the fight, but keep 
your men at their posts for the duty assigned them. Send a good officer with the troops 
at the ferry, and issue the most positive orders prohibiting straggling from the ranks or 
interference of any nature whatever with either person or property. Should a stray shot 
come near, or even strike one of your men, that will not be considered a sufficient reason 
for your firing. I have notified both Ruiz and Cortinas of your presence in Matamoras, 
and the purpose. Should you see either of the persons named, state fully what your 
instructions are. 

Your mission is a delicate one. Be extremely careful. 
Respectfully, 

F. J. HERRON, 
Major Otneral, Commanding. 

Colonel H. Bertram. 

At 12 J o'clock I received the following from Colonel Bertram : 

United States Consulate, 
Matamoras, January 12 — 12.30 o'clock. 
General : I have received your letter. Your instructions are strictly obeyed, and I have 
sent the most stringent ordeis to Lieutenant Colonel Lauglin not to allow anything to be 
done that could be construed into a violation of your orders. Commissions from both Ruiz 
and Cortinas's parties have been here to inquire into the object of our coming over. I told 
them what my instructions were, and both parties went away satisfied. The consul says he 
has about one million in specie in his possession, and that he cannot possibly remove it or 
his family until morning. I have not been able to learn positively which party is gaining. 
Ruiz still holds the plaza, and I think will hold it until morning. 
Respectfully, 

H. BERTRAM, Colonel, Commanding. 
Major General Herron, 

Commanding United Stales Forces. 

The fighting ceased for an hour after the appearance of my troops; but learning that 
there was to be no interference, both parties went at it again, taking care, however, to 
keep some distance from the United States consulate. 

Matters continued so until daylight, when I sent a sufficient number of wagons to remove 
the family of Mr. Pierce and property from the consulate. 

At 7 o'clock a. m. of the loth they were safely landed on thi6 side and the troops with- 
drew. The fighting in the morning was carried on bitterly until 12 o'clock, when the 
Ruiz party retreated and were scattered in every direction. Tbe casualties on both sides 
were about 50 killed and 100 wounded. Among the killed was Ex-Governor Alvino Lopez, 
a prominent Ruiz man. 

Governor Ruiz's forces numbered 800 men and 4 pieces of artillery, while Cortinas's force 
was 600 men and 6 pieces of artillery, and the town during tue fight with lawless bands 
plundering, &c. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 65 

Colonel Cortinas has already announced himself as governor of Tamaulipas, while Gov- 
ernor Ruiz, General Eojas, and some other prominent officers escaped and crossed to this 
side, and are now here refugees. 

I have in this report given merely the facts in detail,, and will not enter into any argu- 
ment in justification of my course. 

Notified by the governor of the State that he could not protect the United States con- 
sulate, and with an appeal from the consul directly for protection for his family and prop- 
erty, I felt that it was unquestionably my duty to furnish a sufficient guard to remove 
him from the city, taking, at the same time, every precaution to prevent collision with 
either of the factions. I might here state that the English consul remained during the 
night at the United States consulate, under our protection. 

I enclose as portion of the report letters * from General Buiz and Colonel Cortinas, the 
former claiming to be governor, appointed and recognized by Juarez, and complaining that 
I did not help him, and the latter expresses his approval of the neutrality I observed. 

In conclusion, I would say that Colonel H. Bertram, of the 20th Wisconsin infantry, 
who commanded the troops that crossed over, performed the delicate mission in an admira- 
ble manner, and proved himself of more than ordinary judgment. The officers and sol- 
diers are entitled to thanks for their conduct. 

I have the honor to be, general, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

F. J. HEREON, Major General. 

Brigadier General C. P. Stone, 

Chief of Staff, New Orleans. 

February 4, 1864. 
Official copy : 

J.C.KELTON, A. A. a. 



[Extract.] 

United States Consulate, 

Matamoras, January 16, 1864. 

Sir: * * * *•*••■■*..• « o s «--«-*«! e 
During the night of the 12th, finding that robbing was being carried on in some parts of 
the town, and I having about a million of dollars in specie under my charge, at 10£ p m. 
I applied to Major General Herron, commanding the forces on the Eio Grande, for sufficient 
men to protect our property from thieves and robbers, and he immediately crossed over a 
large force, who remained by us until morning, when I sent all the money to Brownsville, 
and the troops retired. 

« a a -» a a a a « a o a a a -$ $ 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

L. PIERCE, Jr., Consul. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 



[Translation .] 

Legation of France in the United States, 

Washington, March 11, 1864. 
Sir : According to the information which has reached the Emperor's government, three 
regiments of the fedeial army have lately been sent to Matamoras under pretext of pro- 
tecting the consul of the United States at that point, and have there re-established the 
Juarists, by driving out therefrom General Cortinas, who had pronounced against it. This 
news, the official confirmation of which, however, it had not received, has fixed the atten- 
tion of the Emperor's government. Such a fact would constitute a violation of the neu- 
trality on which the assurances of the Cabinet at Washington have authorized it to rely 
on its part in regard to Mexico, and would also be entirely opposed to the instructions 
addressed by the Department of State to General Banks, who has been directed to favcr 
neither of the two parties, and not to enter the Mexican territory even to protect the 

° Not received. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 5 



66 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

American consuls and citizens there. I therefore deem it my duty, sir, to point it out to 
you, and would be infinitely obliged if you could furnish me with explanations on this 
subject. 

Be pleased to accept, sir, the assurances of my high consideration, 

L. DE GEOFROY. 
Hon. William EL Seward, Sec, Sfc, &fc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 



Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, March 15, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to inform you that I have this day re- 
ceived the note from your department dated 12th instant, with which you were 
pleased to send me copies of various documents which the Secretary of War had 
communicated to you relative to events which happened at Matamoras on the 
12th of January last, as also an extract from the communication upon the same 
acts addressed to your department by the consul of the United States at that 
city, and copy of the note in which the minister of France at this capital com- 
plains of the passage of the forces under General Herron into Mexican territory. 

From the documents transmitted by the Secretary of "War, it seems that the 
presence of such force in the city of Matamoras was requested by the governor 
of the State of Tamaulipas, Don Manuel Ruiz. In awaiting the more complete 
information which you are pleased to anounce, I shall not again touch on this 
matter, in my correspondence with your department, so long as 1 am without 
the instructions which I have sought from my government on this point. 

I will have the pleasure of transmitting to you the explanations and reports 
which may be in my power on this subject, thus observing the intimation you 
give me in your said note. 

With this occasion, it is gratifying to me to renew to you, sir, the protestation 
of my most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., Sc-c, 8fc. 



No. G. — Claims of United States citizens against Mexico. 

Mr. Romero to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican Republic, October 23, 
1862. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 26, 1863, (with enclosures.) 
Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, March 9, 1863. 



Mr. Romero to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

[Translation.] 

No. 340.] Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, October 23, 1862. 
At a conference which I had this day with Mr. Seward, I read to him a translation 
whi h 1 had prepared <'f the note which you addressed me, under No. 392, dated Septem- 
ber 27 last past, m relation to the claims of the mint, which the minister of the United 
States, residing in your capital, had presented to the supreme government. Having con- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 67 

eluded my reading, I stated to Mr. Seward that I had to make some explanations of details 
not referred to in your note. 

Mr. Seward said to me that there was no necessity for my giving him such explanations; 
that what he had heard was sufficient for him to say that this government desired that the 
just claims which the loyal citizens of the United States have against foreign countries 
should be duly acknowledged and paid ; but that, with reference to Mexico, the President, 
in view of the actual state of affairs in Mexico, did not propose either to exact urgently 
the payment of such claims, or to use force to obtain it, and that the policy of the United 
States in that respect had been indicated in the answer which this government gave to the 
allied powers against Mexico, upon being invited by them to take part in the alliance, 
which document is known to you. 

He also stated to me that the only instructions which this government has communicated 
to Mr. Corwin upon the claims, which have already been published, (the first of the docu- 
ments annexed to the message of the President of the 14th of April last upon the present 
condition of Mexico,) were so liberal and conciliatory that they would assuredly be satis- 
factory to the government of the Republic ; that this government was entirely satisfied 
by the reading which I had just made to him of the good faith of the government of 
Mexico. 

Mr. Seward asked me whether I proposed to send him said note. I answered in the 
affirmative. He replied, Very well ; if I shall have occasion to say anything more or dif- 
ferent upon the subject I will ask a further interview with you. We will leave it to rest 
under that understanding, which you may communicate to your government. 

The minute of this note has been submitted to Mr. Seward, to see whether he found our 
conference to-day to have been faithfully recorded, and it has appeared to him correct. 

I reiterate to you the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. God, liberty 
and reform. 

M. ROMERO. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mexico. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



[Translation.] 

Legation op Mexico, 

Washington, February 26, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary : In conformity with what I said to you at our interview 
to-day, I have the honor to send you copies of some notes exchanged between 
the legation of the United States in Mexico and the government of the republic 
respecting the nationality of Don Ignacio de Loperena, who pretends to be a 
citizen of the United States for the purpose of eluding the duties imposed on 
him in his character as a Mexican. 

The certificate of the consul of the United States at Cadiz presented by 
Loperena seems insufficient to prove the nationality of this person, for the 
reasons you will see in the notes of Mr. Fuente. Mr. Corwin had, besides, inti- 
mated in his confidential note to Mr. Fuente his apprehension that the certificate 
was false. Loperena is a native of the State of Chiapas, in Mexico, and has 
never been out of the republic for five years, so that he cannot have been 
naturalized in the United States, because, in accordance with section third of the 
act of Congress of the 14th of April, 1802, entitled "An act to establish an 
uniform rule of naturalization and to repeal the acts heretofore passed on that 
subject," which is still in force, it is necessary for a foreigner who is to be nat- 
uralized that he shall have resided five years in the United States ; and Loperena 
cannot have resided such term in this country for the reason that he has not 
been absent from Mexico, because he went away for the first time at the close 
of 1858, in company with Mr. Forsyth, who was minister of the United States 
to Mexico, and from that time till this five years have not passed away, besides 
which, he has returned some time since to the republic, and has been residing 
as heretofore at the capital. 



68 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

I do not doubt, sir, that when you are informed of these details you will give 
instructions to Mr. Corwin, if he has not already done so on his own motion, 
that he shall cease to consider Loperena as a citizen of the United States, 
whereby he will avoid the inconvenience occasioned to the government of 
Mexico in the execution of her laws, through the protection granted until now 
by the legation of the United States to Loperena, and through the protests of 
Mr. Corwin. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, tyc, fyc, fyc. 



Consulate of the United States of America. 
I, Ebenezer S. Eggleston, consul of the United States of America for Cadiz and the de- 
pendences thereof, do hereby certify that Ignacio Loperena, now temporarily residing in 
this city of Cadiz, has this day deposited in this consulate his certificate of naturalization, duly 
issued out of and under the seal of the supreme court of the city of New York, declaring 
him to have been duly admitted and made a citizen of the United States of America. 
In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of this consulate this 
twentieth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
[l. 8.1 and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-6eventh. 

E. S. EGGLESTON, 

United States Consul. 

Washington, Febrero 26 de 1S63. 
T3 eopia: 

ROMERO. 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Mexico, January 13, 1863. 

I, the undersigned, consul of the United States of America for the city of Mexico and 
the dependences thereof, do hereby certify tbat the foregoing is a true and faithful copy 
of the original filed in this consulate, the same having been carefully examined by myself 
and compared with said original and found to agree therewith, word for word, and figure 
for figure. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of this consulate 
[l. 8.1 the day and the year above written. 

MARCUS OTTERBURG, 

United States Consul. 

Washington, Febrero 26, de 1863. 

Es copia: 

ROMERO. 

[Translation.] 
Legation of the United States of America, January 9, 1863. 
Sir: At this^moment I have been shown the certificate of the consul of the United 
States at Cadiz" proving that Mr. Loperena is a citizen of the United States. This testi- 
mony must be conclusive with me, and, in my judgment, should be so with all it may con- 
cern. 

Thus, then, I find myself under the necessity of protesting, officially, against any dis- 
positions relating to the effects Mr. Loperena may have here, based on the idea that Mr. 
Loperena is not a citizen of the United States. 

The consul of the United States will show you the certificate to which reference is had. 
I renew to you, sir, the assurances of my respect. 

THOMAS CORWIN, 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister rUnipotent^.ary of the United Stales of America. 
His Excellency S'r Fubnte, 

Minister of Foreign Rflations, Mexico. 

Washington, February 26, 1863. 

A copy : 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 69 

[Translation.] 

National Palace, Mexico, January 12, 1863. 

Sir: A difficulty has occurred about taking under consideration the protest contained 
in the note you were pleased to address to me on the 9th instant, which I have directed 
to be privately communicated, but as your excellency's illness has not allowed it to be 
brought to your knowledge, I find myself obliged to state it in writing. 

This difficulty is derived from the want of the regular and customary form in the doc- 
ument exhibited by Don Ignacio Loperena to establish his character as a citizen of the 
United States, because he has brought before me the original document, and neither the 
signature of the American consul at Cadiz nor the seal of the consulate stamped on this 
paper come authenticated by the minister of the United States at Madrid, or, better still , 
by the department for foreign affairs at Washington. I beg you to consider that if the 
legation which you worthily discharge can very well certify the office, signature, and seal 
of a consul of the United States in the republic of Mexico, the same does not occur when 
treating of consuls in other countries. 

Please accept the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. 

JUAN A DE LA. FUENTE. 

His Excellency Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. 

Washington, February 26, 1863. 

Copy : ROMERO. 

[Translation.] 

National Palace, Mexico, January 17, 1863. 

Sir: Since the letter I had the honor to address to you on the 12th instant, whose object 
was to offer to your consideration an important remark upon the irregularity manifest in 
the document shown by D. Ignacio Loperena to prove his character as North American, the 
chief officer of this department has received from D Juan Potts a verbal message whioh 
he was bringing to me from your excellency, and in virtue of which I must think that you 
no longer take interest in granting your protection to that person on account of the new 
nationality he attributes to himself. It is true that Mr. Potts announced a prompt answer 
from you on this matter, and I was expecting its receipt, not as exclusive evidence of your 
abandonment of this matter, but as an act which might, or not, follow the message above 
mentioned, without that it should be necessary for me to be thus confirmed. Still, the 
want of prompt reply in a case so urgent would have appeared to me, by itself alone, as a 
mark of acquiescence in my observations ; and, nevertheless, a recent and transcendent 
circumstance makes a reply in every respect indispensable from your legation, therefore 
I beg you to send it as early as possible. A paper of this morning, " The Herald," has 
published the notice which appears in the printed extract annexed to this communication. 
The manifest tendency of this notice is to keep back the bidders on the effects of Loperena, 
ordered to be sold for the fiscal liabilities of this individual, and this without other reason 
than your excellency's protest relating to him, which interested parties suppose to be in 
full force. Allow me to say that I cannot question for a moment the conviction I have 
that your excellency does not insist upon the protest mentioned. Not only the potent 
want of form would oppose this, as I had the honor to poiut out in my previous official let- 
ter, but besides the other reasons of public notoriety of the reality of the fact, and the con- 
clusive qualification under the laws of the United States ; for D. Ignacio Loperena did not 
leave Mexico, to which he belongs by birth, until about the year 1859, when he went to 
the United States in company with Forsyth, and since then the five years, which the law 
of the United States determines for the residence of foreigners in their country, before they 
can be lawfully naturalized, have not passed. 

In this reasoning I have chosen to suopose that Loperena had lived without interruption 
in the United States through the period elapsed since he went from Mexico until this time. 
For these reasons you will perceive it is impossible for this government to admit the na- 
turalization spoken of, and that it has entire confidence in the justness of your excellency, 
which will prompt a declaration which will admit the manifest justice of this republic. 
Be pleased, &c , &c, 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTO. 

His Excellency Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. 

Mexico, January 26, 1863. 

Copy: JUAN DE DIAS ARIAS. 

Washington, February 26, 1863. 

Copy: ROMERO. 



70 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, March 9, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 26th 
ultimo, in relation to the nationality of Don Ignacio de Loperena, which has 
already been the subject of personal conference between us. 

Upon examination of the correspondence of Mr. Corwin, I do not find that 
he has made any communication to the department on the subject ; and, in the 
absence of such information, it is deemed proper to request a report from him 
upon the case. In directing Mr. Corwin to make this report, it will be intima- 
ted to him that while he yields protection to bonajide citizens, he will not 
suffer citizenship to be fraudulently assumed for the purpose of shielding Mexi- 
can citizens from the obligations due to their own laws and government. 

I avail myself of this occasion to offer to you, sir, a renewed assurance of 
my high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Sefior Don Matias Romero, Sfc, Sfc., fyc. 



No. 7. — The temporary withdrawal of Mr. Romero from Washi?igton. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward April 23,1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero April 23, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward May 8, 1863. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation ] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, April 23, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to inform you that my government, ac- 
ceding to the repeated applications which I have made to it to permit me to 
return to Mexico for the purpose of taking an active part in the defence of my 
country against the foreign invader, has been pleased to grant me temporary 
leave to return to the republic. 

I have instructions from my government to leave, during my absence from 
Washington, the Mexican citizens resident in the United States under the pro- 
tection of the representative of one of the American nations friendly to Mexico 
accredited to this government, to be designated to the Department of State, be- 
fore I leave New York. I will also leave in the keeping of the same repre- 
sentative the archives of this legation in Washington. 

Proposing to make immediate use of the leave granted to me by my govern- 
ment, I beg you to order passports to be sent to me, for myself and for Don 
Jesus Escobar y Armendaris, attached to this legation, who will return with 
me to the republic. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William II. Seward, fyc, Sfc., Sfc. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 71 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 23, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of this date, 
informing me that your government, yielding to your repeated applications for 
permission to return to Mexico for the purpose of taking an active part in the 
defence of your country in the unhappy war now existing there, has granted 
you a temporary leave of absence, during which the interests of Mexican citi- 
zens are, under your instructions, to be placed in charge of one of the repre- 
sentatives of the American States, to be named hereafter, and requesting 
passports for yourself and for Don Jesus Escobar y Armendaris, attache of the 
legation, who will return with you. 

Whilst I cannot but express my sincere regrets that your relations with this 
government are to be temporarily suspended — relations in which, both in your 
official and personal character, your abilities, zeal, and amiability, have rendered 
you most acceptable to those who have had intercourse with you — I cannot 
but sympathize with and appreciate the motive which has prompted your 
patriotic determination, and I offer my best wishes for your safety and success 
in carrying it into effect. When your object shall have been accomplished, it 
will give me pleasure to welcome your return hither. 

The passports you request are enclosed. Due respect will be paid to the 
representations which may be made on behalf of the interests of Mexican 
citizens by the person to whom that duty is delegated. 

I avail myself, sir, of the occasion to repeat to you the assurances of my 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Matias Eomero, 8fc, fyc, 8fc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



Mexican Legation in the United States op America, 

New York, May 8, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to inform you that, in compliance with 
the instructions which I received from my government to return to Mexico, and 
which I communicated to your department in my note of the 23d of April last 
past, I requested of Senor Don Federico L. Barreda, the minister resident of 
Peru, that during my absence from Washington he should remain in charge of 
the protection of the Mexican citizens residing in the United States, and of the 
trust of the archives of the Mexican legation, which charge Mr. Barreda had 
the goodness to accept. I have, therefore, to request you to be pleased to 
recognize him as charged with the protection referred to, until such time as my 
government may otherwise direct. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, 8fc. 



No. 8. — Case of the Mexican prisoners confined at Fort Delaware. 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward September 18, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda September 21, 1863. 

Same to same September 24, 1863. 



72 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward September 28, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure) .February 15, 1864. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero (with one enclosure) March 15, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward March 17, 1864. 

Same to same, (with two enclosures) ..April 25, 1864. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. April 28, 1864. 



< Stamp of 
I Legation of Peru. 



Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 



New York, September 18, 1S63. 

Sir: Francisco Navarro Sanchez, Julio Nores, Jose Antonio Candido, and 
Jorge D. Lustin, prisoners of war in Fort Delaware, have addressed the consul 
general of Mexico in this city, stating to him that they are Mexican citizens, 
the first a native of Reynosa, and the others natives of Matamoras ; that at the 
beginning of the war they were in the city of New Orleans, which they could 
not leave on account of the blockade; that they were obliged to take up arms 
for the term of one year; that on this being concluded they were forced to con- 
tinue in the army for the time the war should last; that they do not wish to be 
exchanged or to return to the south, and that their desire is to be set at liberty 
in order that they may return to Mexico. 

Not having the means of verifying the assertions of the applicants, I address 
your excellency, trusting, from your equity, that you will be pleased to order 
the case to be investigated, and that if their statements should turn out to be 
true, you will direct the men who have been forced to render service that was 
not exacted by law to be set at liberty. 

Navarro Sanchez belonged to company G of the 3d regiment of infantry of 
Louisiana, army of the west. He will give information of the corps in which 
the others have done military duty. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to your excellency the assurances 
of my esteem and respect. 

F. L. BARREDA. 

His Excellency the Secretary of State 

of the United States, Washington. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda. 

Department of State, 

Washington, Sej)t,cmber 21, 1863. 

Sir : I have received and have commended to the attention of the Secretary 
of War your note of the 18th instant, asking for the release of certain Mexicans 
confined in Fort Delaware as prisoners of war. 

I avail myself of the occasion to offer to you a renewed assurance of my very 
high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don F. L. Barreda, Sfc., fyc., fyc. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 73 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda. 

Department of State, 

Washington, September 24, 1863. 
Sir : I have the honor to inform you that the Secretary of War has notified 
this department that your request touching certain Mexicans now in confine- 
ment as prisoners of war in Fort Delaware will receive the attentive considera- 
tion of his department. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurance of my highest 
consideration. 



Sefior Don F. L. Barreda, Spc., Sfc., fyc. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward. 



Newport, September 28, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of 
the 24th instant, informing me that the Secretary of War has notified you that 
my request touching certain Mexicans now confined as prisoners of war in Fort 
Delaware will receive the attentive consideration of his department. 

Thanking you, sir, for your prompt attention to this subject, I have the honor 
to be your excellency's obedient servant, 

F. L. BARREDA. 
His Excellency the Secretary of State 

of the United States, Washington. 



Mr. Romero to' Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 



Mexican Lf.gation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 15, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary: Under date of the 24th September, of the year last past, 
the department deemed proper to answer to Don Federico Barreda, then charged 
with the protection of Mexicans, that his application in regard to certain Mexi- 
cans confined as prisoners of war at Fort Delaware would be taken into con- 
sideration by the Secretary of War, as that functionary had informed you. 

Very lately I have received from those interested the letter which I have the 
honor to enclose, in copy, from which it must be inferred that as yet the case of 
the individuals to whom I refer has not been solved. I beg, therefore, that it 
may please you to tell me whether in fact no determination has been taken 
about that of George D. Lustin, Julio Norris and Jose A. Candida, or, in case 
no decision has been yet made, that you will be so good as to indicate the same 
to me, that I may not occupy the attention of the department with this matter 
but so far as may be strictly necessary. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to your excellency the assui-ances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sjv., Sfc., Sfc. 



74 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Foet Delaware, Ftbruary 10, 1864. 
Seiior Romero, Minister to the United States: 

The undersigned, a prisoner of war, was residing in the city of New Orleans at the com- 
mencement of the present war between the northern and southern States, and was forced 
to enter the rebel army in 1862, and served in the same until July, 1863, when he sur- 
rendered himself a prisoner of war to the northern forces, and took the oath of allegiance 
to the government of the United States. He would state to your excellency that he is a 
citizen of Matamoras, in the State of Tamaulipas, in the republic of Mexico, which you 
have the honor to represent at the city of Washington, and that on the 8th day of the 
present month he communicated the foregoing facts to the Secretary of War of the Unittd 
States and to Major General Butler, commanding at Norfolk, Va. I would be under many 
obligations to you if you will call the attention of the government at Washington to my 
case and have me released from prison. I am a loyal citizen of the Juarez government, 
and desire to continue so. 

I would assure your excellency that there are two other citizens of Mexico now confined 
in prison here, whose cases are the same as mine, and would respectfully ask you to use 
your influence and ministerial authority to have them released also. They are named 
Juloi Norris and Jose" A. Candida, both citizens of Tamaulipas, and loyal to the Juarez 
government. 

I would have addressed this communication to you in the Spanish language, but there is 
no one here to interpret it to the examining officer, who examines all letteis sent from this 
post to another post. 

Hoping your excellency will give his immediate attention to this, and with my best 
wishes for your health and prosperity, I am your most obedient servant, 

GEORGE D. LUSTIN. 

Washington, February 15, 1864. 
A true copy: 

IGN. MARISCAL, Secretary. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 15, 1864. 

Sir : Referring to your note of the 15th ultimo relative to certain Mexican 
citizens confined as prisoners of war in Fort Delaware, I have the honor to 
inform you that, having submitted the subject to the Secretary of War, I have 
received from General Canby, under the Secretary's instructions, a communi- 
cation dated the 11th instant, copy of which is herewith enclosed. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
high consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Seiior Don Matias Romero, fyc, c\c, fyv. 



Wab Department, Washington City, 

March 11, 1864. 

Sir: The Secretary of War instructs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 
16th ultimo, inviting attention to an enclosed translation of a note from the minister of 
Mexico, of the day previous, requesting information as to the determination of the govern- 
ment in regard to George D. Lustin, Julio Norris, and Jose" A. Candida, alleged Mexican 
citizens, now in confinement as prisoners of war at Fort Delaware. 

In reply thereto, the Secretary instructs me to inform you that the commissary general 
of prisoners has been advised that these cases will be held in reserve for the present, and 
the prisoners will not be sent south for exchange against tbeir consent. 
I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

EDWARD R. S. CANBY, 

Brigadier General, A. A. G. 
The Secbetary of State, Washington, D. C. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 75 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, March 17, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : I have had the honor to receive the note you were pleased 
to address to me on the 15th current, enclosing to me a communication from 
General Canby relative to four Mexican citizens who are held at Fort Delaware 
as prisoners of war. Those individuals represented to this legation in Septem- 
ber last that they were residing in New Orleans when the civil war broke out 
in the United States ; that they could not depart from that port in consequence 
of its blockade established by the United States navy ; that they were com- 
pelled by the agents of the insurrection to take up arms against the govern- 
ment of the United States for the term of one year; which having come to its 
end, they compelled them to continue in the secessionist army during the time 
the war might last. As a proof of the sincerity of such representations they 
stated that they would not be exchanged, nor return to the south, and desired 
to go back to Mexico. 

As they did not present proofs of the truth of their assertions, Mr. Barreda, 
minister of Peru, in charge at that time of the protection of Mexican citizens 
in the United States, thought fit to confine himself, in the note which he ad- 
dressed to your department of the 18th September aforesaid, to request that an 
investigation of the case should be made, and that if the result showed the 
statements of the parties interested to be true, they should be set at liberty. 

On the 24th of said September you were pleased to announce to Mr. Barreda 
that the Secretary of War had informed him that application relative to those 
Mexicans would receive due attention from his department. 

On the 10th of February last past, one of the parties again addressed this 
legation, stating that they still remained imprisoned, and alleging circumstances 
which tended to prove their foregoing assertions, such as having taken the oath 
of fealty to the government of the United States, in consequence whereof I 
think it proper to address myself to your department inquiring whether the 
honorable Secretary of War has yet decided the case referred to. The com- 
munication to which I now reply informs me "that the Secretary of War has 
given instructions to the commissary general of prisoners that these cases be 
reserved for the present ; that meantime the parties are not to be exchanged 
against their will." From this it appears to follow that the Department of 
War does not think proper to make the investigation which had been solicited, 
which to me seems not credible, because it would be the means most adequate 
to determine satisfactorily this incident, it being, besides, notorious that if the 
parties are left indefinitely in prison, their condition will be worse than that of 
those who indubitably have served voluntarily in the rebellion, who may be 
exchanged at any time. 

According to my information in similar cases, in which prisoners have been 
made of subjects of other nations, and chiefly of Great Britain, they have been 
set at liberty when it has been shown that they served in the ranks of the in- 
surgents by compulsion of greater force, and the justice of the government of 
the United States is too well known to admit belief that it will proceed in a 
different manner in its treatment of Mexican citizens. 

I therefore deem it my duty again to beg the government of the United 
States to cause proper investigation to be made in this business, and in case it 
proves the truth of the statements made by the parties interested, that it cause 
them to be set at liberty. 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

6 M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, &., 8fc., §c. 



76 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, April 25, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : In my note dated on the 17th of March last past, I had 
the honor to inform you that, in my opinion, the determination adopted hy the 
Secretary of War in the case of the Mexican prisoners confined at Fort Dela- 
ware was not entirely conformable to that which the considerations of equity 
demanded, which militate in their favor, inasmuch as they had suffered so long 
an imprisonment without any investigation having been made of the truth of 
the facts which they allege in their defence. 

Subsequently I have received the letters of George D. Lustiu, copies of 
which I annex to this communication. By the first of these letters it will be 
seen that one of the prisoners has already died while awaiting the final deter- 
mination as to his fate, and that Lustin complains of being quite sick. These 
circumstances, I trust, will influence the government of the United States to 
have the cases of the three remaining prisoners attended to, by judging them 
by means of the investigation which they solicit, and which I have had the 
honor to indicate, or by putting an end otherwise to the painful situation of 
expectancy in which they find themselves. My object in this note is none 
other than to again call your attention to this business by requesting your in- 
fluence, to the end that it may lead to a decision as promptly as it may be pos- 
sible, and in the terms of justice which are to be expected from the government 
of the United States. 

With this motive I renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my very 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc., fyc, Sfc. 



Fort Delaware, April 20, 186-t. 

Rfspected Sir: Permit me again to call your attention to my case, and to request you 
to press it upon the government of the "United States, and procure a decision as early 
as possible. An exchange is in progress, and having no desire or intention of ever going 
back to the southern army, I am the more anxious t ■ obtain my release before the prisoners 
are sent from here for exchange. I presume a load will be sent off in a few days from here, 
and I know not how soon all may be sent. I do not know what evidence the government 
will require me to produce to warrant it in releasing me, and securing itself against any 
further service on my part in the rebel army. Having once taken the oath of allegiance, 
as heretofore stated, and claiming Mexican citizenship and the protection of your excellency, 
being able to substantiate beyond a doubt that I am a citizen of the government which 
your excellency has the honor to represent, I think would be a sufficient guarantee of my 
sincerity. I am willing to submit to any test that may be imposed upon me, compatible 
with honor, which your excellency may approve, whereby my allegiance to your excellency's 
government will not be compromised or impaired. 

Hoping that your excellency may be able to procure a speedy decision by the government, 
I am yours, most respectfully, 

GEORGE D. LUSTIN. 

SeBor Romero, Envoy Extraordinary, &cc. 

Copy: 

IGN. MARIS :AL. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 77 



Fort Delaware, March 27, 1864. 

Sir : Yours of the 23d is to hand, and I tender you my acknowledgments for your prompt- 
ness iu laying my case before the government. 

I am very desirous of securing my release before summer, as my health is quite delicate, 
and I fear that I may not be able to stand it through the season. If you can expedite my 
release it will confer a favor. I am not afraid of being sent south, as I have no wish to 
go back, and do not anticipate that I will be forced to go. The statements in mine of the 
10th ultimo are strictly true, and the utmost reliance can be placed in them, and can be 
substantiated by indubitable testimony which will be furnished you if you can secure an 
investigation of my case, and it should be necessary for you to be put in possession of it. 
Francisco Navarro Sanches ^vas sent to Point Lookout, Maryland, and I have learned that 
he died there of small-pox. The regiment to which he was attached were all sent to Point 
Lookout. 

Again thanking vou for your attention, I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 

GEORGE D. LUSTIN. 

Serior Romebo, Minister at Washington. 

Copy : 

IGN. MAEISCAL. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, April 28, 1S64. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 25th 
instant, with its enclosures. 

I have communicated a translation of the former, and a copy of the latter, to 
the Secretary of War, referring, at the same time, to your previous note of the 
17th ultimo upon the same subject, which had been duly submitted to the War 
Department without eliciting any information. 

1 shall hasten to communicate to you the reply which may be received to 
these representations. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurances of my high 
consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Sefior Matias Romero, Sfc, fyc., fyc. 



No. 9. — Protection of Mexican citizens in California. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with four enclosures) March 1 2, 1864. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero March 17, 1864. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, March 12, 1864. 

Sir : I have the honor to send to you a copy of a note I have received from 
the Mexican consul at San Francisco, in which he informs this legation of the 
illegal proceedings of which two Mexican citizens were victims at a place in 
the State of California called Campo Chino, which proceeding ended in the 



78 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

execution without form of law of the said citizens named, Luis Leyva and 
Cosme Nunez. I send also to your department a slip from the newspaper 
" La Voz de Mexico," which is mentioned in said note, and a copy of the state- 
ment which several Mexican citizens resident at Oampo Chino presented to the 
Mexican consul at San Francisco in relation to the same matter. 

I am sure that the government of the United States, animated by its natural 
rectitude, will not do less than proceed in this case as justice and the good report 
of every civilized country demands, and will do so at once upon the facts to 
which I allude reaching its knowledge, even if otherwise than through me; 
therefore I think I am excused from urging it, beyond the hope that most 
effective orders he issued for the apprehension and punishment of those guilty 
of the assassination of the two Mexican citizens to whom I have made reference, 
and that also there be given to all Mexican citizens resident in the State of 
California the protection of the laws to which they have full right in virtue of 
the stipulations of the treaties which bind together the United States and the 
Mexican republic. 

Reserving return to the submission of this painful subject to the consideration 
of the department, when I may receive the instructions my government may 
think right to give me about it, I avail myself of this opportunity to repeat 
to you, sir, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 8rc., <$r., 8fc. 



[Translation.] 



Consulate of Mexico at San Francisco, 

San Francisco, February 13, 1864. 

Having become informed, through various channels, that on the 25th December two 
Mexicans, called Luis Leyva and Cosme Nunez, were hanged at a place in this State 
called Campo Chino, by a mob of persons of various nations, I thought it my duty to 
inform you of the fact, because it is no rare thing for Mexicans to be victims of such out- 
rages without any intervention of the authorities to repress such acts. I enclose a slip from 
the Mexican newspaper " La Voz de Mexico," in which publicity has been given to this 
matter. I also enclose a paper which has been addressed to me from that point, Campo 
Chino, in which appear the names of the persons who make that kind of demonstration in 
their way. All which I place in your knowledge, that, if you think it suitable, you may 
take any step in the business. 

I assure you of my respectful consideration. 

M. E. RODRIGUEZ. 

Don Matias Romero, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 

of the Republic at Washington. 

Washington, March 12, 1864. 
A copy : 

IGNO. MARISCAL. 



[Translation.] 

Patriotic Mexican Junta of Sonora. — Statement to Don Manuel E. Rodriguez, consul of tlu> Mexican 

republic at San Francisco. 

We, Mexicans, who compose this patriotic association, have assembled this day, the 7th 
February, 18C4, to make this statement, which has the double object of congratulating 
our consul resident at San Francisco on the hruiness with which he has commenced the dis- 
charge of his lunelious and to bring to his knowledge the fads which we are about to press 
upon him. In doing thus, we think we are discharging a 6acred duty as citizens of Mexico 
resident in a foreign country ; a duty, the fulfilment ot which in this State is of especial 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



79 



importance, as there have been here so frequent outrages on our countrymen and so little 
spirit shown in their defence as to give room for the repetition of the same scandals. 
Moved by this consideration, 0. Alejo Ramirez has made a motion in the junta in the 
terms following: "Countrymen, I was anxious to see assembled a good number of my 
fellow-citizens for the purpose of calling their attention to a scandalous outrage committed 
at Campo Ohino on the persons of two Mexicans, who were very lately hung without suit 
previously instituted or any evidence soever. I propose to you that we resort to our consul, 
that he may recur to the government of the State or other competent power, complaining 
of the act to which I refer, which we must consider as offensive to the dignity of our 
country. Certainly we should not advocate the impunity of criminals, but we should 
demand that when a Mexican deserves to be punished with any penalty he should be 
judged according to the laws of this country." This motion was approved by all present, 
and the assembly closed with the signing of this act by the following citizens : 



Alejo Ramirez. 
Gregorio Contreras. 
Jose M. Hernandez. 
Jose" M. Garcia. 
Ramon Osorio. 
Ramon Martinez. 
Amdo Cuevas. 
Simon Caberut. 
Jose M. Rosas. 
Jesus Camacho. 
Viviano Rubio. 
Francisco R. Luvilla. 
Fernando Mariscal. 



Correct : 



Jesus Duarte. 
Ignacio Carvajal. 
Nicolas Gonzalez. 
Casimiro Leon. 
Herculano Sierra. 
Luis Tanes. 
Pedro Lomelin. 
Gabriel Mendes. 
Maximiano Nava. 
Cesaiio Ramirez. 
Antonio Castro. 
Cirilo Flores. 
Arcadio Vasconcelos. 



Basilio Villanueva. 
Lugardo Palacio. 
Bonito Madigales. 
Francisco Anaga. 
Angel Silvas. 
Refugio Gastelum. 
Faustino Morelos. 
Jose' Castro. 
Jesus Andado. 
Fermin Antelo. 
Miguel Morelos. 



Washington, March 12, 1860. 
IGNO. MARISCAL. 



[Translation.] 

From the San Francisco " Voz de Mexico." 

Assassination of two Mexicans, Luis Leyva and Cosme Niines. 

We take occasion to announce in our paper the assassinations committed on two of our 
countrymen in disregard of the authorities who are the sole executors of the laws, and 
now give place to a narrative sent us by a sister of Leyva, and submit it without com- 
mentary and without modification, because we wish the ideas should be read as they are 
presented by the party who communicated them to us. 

We urge the Mexican consul resident here to take some action in relation to indemnity 
for the injuries caused by such outrages, and the punishment of their perpetrators if, 
perchance, within the sphere of his faculty ; but if not, we ask him to address our minister 
at Washington, that such functionary may interpose the measures which may be needful to 
attain those objects and that the repetition of such disorders may be averted. 

All Mexicans who experience wrongs may send their complaints to this press, well 
assured that if well founded we will give them publicity with pleasure, because there will 
at least rest with us the consolation that we have not kept silence on the injustice done to 
our countrymen. 



Sonora, January 31, 1864. 
Messrs. Editors of " La Voz de Mexico," San Francisco: 

Dear Sirs : Annexed I send you a letter in which you will find the details of the 
assassination committed at Campo Chino on two of our countrymen, to the end that if you 
find them worthy of insertion in your esteemed paper you may do so, in order that public 
animadversion may fall on the perpetrators. . 

The subscriber, sister of one of the dead men, poor and unaided, recurs to you as the only 
channel through which, as advised, she can elucidate this matter, which, as you will see, 
is of interest to every Mexican in its publication. 

I remain your obedient servant, Messrs. Editors, 

ANASTASIA LEYVA. 



80 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



[Translation.] 

Horrid assassination committed at Campo Chino on the persons of Luis Leyva and Cosme Nunez, by a 
mob of Irish, Germans, and Indians, led on by Don Alejandro Retes de Castorena. 

On the 18th day of December, 1863, Luis Leyva, going drunk about the campo, entered 
a shop known by name as El Colorado, to pawn a pistol for five dollars, because, in 
that trade, money is lent upon every kind of pledge to as many as ask for it ; but this El 
Colorado did not lend to Leyva, and greatly insulted him, and was replied to by Leyva in 
similar terms. Leyva went out from there and entered a bakery opposite El Colorado's 
shop, where he pledged the pistol. On the same day El Colorado sued Leyva for damages — 
some hours earlier — but the authority evaded the matter. 

On the 25th of same December, El Colorado, aware that Leyva had redeemed the pistol 
from where it was in pawn, again sued Leyva, bringing as witness his own brother, testify- 
ing in the court that Leyva was carrying arms to attack him with. The judge ordered 
him to be searched, and, satisfied that he was not carrying arms of any kind, the judge 
demanded of him bail for five hundred dollars, as guarantee he would drink no more 
liquor, to which Leyva replied that he was a man with whom this was a vice, and for this 
reason could not give the bail he asked for, as much because he had no money as that he 
did not own property of any kind. The judge rejoined that if he did not give the bail he 
asked for he would order him to prison at Sonora for 6ix months, to which Leyva answered 
he would do as he chose, but he was satisfied he was acting arbitrarily, because there had 
been no one sworn according to law that could cause him to be so sentenced. Notwith- 
standing these observations, the judge sentenced him to six months' imprisonment in the 
jail at Sonora, Leyva remaining in the court-room till 2 o'clock in the afternoon, at which 
hour the judge placed him in the custody of the sheriff, who took him to jail. 

It is to be remarked that while Leyva was on trial on the 25th, Don Alejandro Retes de 
Castorena came in, accusing Cosme Nunez and Amado Pacheco of robbing him of three 
horses. 

The judge of the place ordered the arrest of Nunez and Pacheco. The sheriff, accompanied 
by Petes, went to the house of the subscriber, sister of the deceased, where Nunez and 
Pacheco lived. They found Nuiiez asleep ; the sheriff waked him and went into the street, 
but fearing what in effect took place, he took to his heels, because Nunez and the campo 
in general know, and it is notorious, that at that place things are done arbitrarily. In 
fine, they overtook him, and Nunez gave up ; thence they dragged him before the judge, 
who told him what Retes bad stated, to which Nunez replied he was entirely innocent in 
this matter. The judge finding no cause against Nunez, said to Retes, if he had no proofs 
on the following day he would set Nunez at liberty. Then Alexandra threatened the judge 
if he would not punish the accused. The judge knowing, from what was apparent, that 
Retes did not tell the truth and was swearing falsely, wished to set Nunez free, but Retes 
again threatened the judge, saying, that if he set said Nunez at liberty he would put a ball 
through him. The judge then ordered Nunez to jail for trial the following day. 

On the 25th, between eleven and twelve at night, said Retes, with a mob, rushed upon 
the jail, opened the door, took out Leyva and Nufiez, and on the edge of the campo hanged 
them on a tree. 

As evidence that an assassination had been committed, which calls for the punishment 
of its perpetrators, it is enough to say that the horses supposed to have been stolen were 
found three days afterwards at a horse-raising farm, three miles distant from Campo Chino, 
the owner of which farm said that the horses came there of themselves. In view of an 
event so lamentable, we hope the authority to whom it belongs will take cognizance of 
it for the purpose of punishing those who, setting themselves above the laws and those 
charged with their administration, constitute themselves as a court and dispose of the life 
and honor of the citizen at their caprice and without any regular procedure. 

I, as sister of the dead Leyva, demand, in presence of God and of the civilized world, the 
punishment of Mr. Retes Castorena as guilty of the act, for my dead brother was, by all 
proof, a good man, as I will testify when I am required. So also will I prove that Retes 
Castorena is a man who acts and has acted dishonestly, because in general he has been in 
companionship with thieves. 

It is attributed to me that in my house I gave shelter to men of not very good repute ; 
but those were known to all the campo, and I heard none speak evil of them, as is shown 
by the fact that the judge himself and his constable were with them in the same shop, and 
who, if they had any ground, or even suspicion, would have advised me not to let them 
into my house — a thirg they did not do, and which evidently proves that some would cast 
a calumny upon me. 

ANASTASIA LEYVA. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 81 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department op State, 

Washington, March 17, 1864. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 12th 
instant, relating to outrages alleged to have been perpetrated upon the Mexican 
citizens Leyva and Nunez by a mob in California, with the papers accompany- 
ing it. Deeply regretting the occasion which has prompted such a representa- 
tion from you, I have to assure you that this government will countenance no 
disregard of the rights of foreigners living within its jurisdiction, and that I 
have transmitted your note, with the accompanying papers, to his excellency 
the governor of California, with an earnest recommendation that the perpe- 
trators of the outrage be properly dealt with. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Matias Romero, fyc, 8fc, fyc. 



No. 10. — Case of the Mexican brig Raton del Nilo. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 18, 1864, (with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, February 20, 1864. 

Same to same, February 24, 1864, (with one enclosure.) 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



[Translation.] 



Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 18, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to remit to you copy of a protest which 
I have received from the Mexican consul at the Havana against the capture, by 
a war steamer of the United States, of the Mexican pilot-boat Raton del Nilo, 
which had cleared from said port for Matamoras. 

Withholding myself from seeking from the government of the United States, 
on account of said capture, that which the Mexican government may believe 
proper under the circumstances of the case, I consider it my duty to send to 
your department the protest mentioned, that there may appear in it the effects 
to which it gave cause. 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, Sfc. 



Consulate of the Mexican Republic at the Havana. 
I, Jose' de Cabarga, charged with the Mexican consulate at the Havana, certify that in 
the book A of protocols, in this consulate, at folio 266, is a document which literally says 
thus : 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 6 



82 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Consulate of Mexico at the Habana. 

On the 2d day of the month of February, of the year 1864, appeared at this consulate 
in my charge, Doctor Don Miguel P. Guirnera, for himself and as agent for Don Isidro 
Maristany, and said, that on the 21st day of the month of October last past, the Mexican 
pilot-boat Raton del Nilo, in command of her captain, Don Gil Gelpi, with a general cargo 
of lawful merchandise, duly cleared at the marine administration and this consulate, sailed 
from this port bound to Matamoras. That the said vessel having reached her port of desti- 
nation, he received a letter from her captain the 18th of November last, advising him that 
the vessel had anchored in the roads of Matamoras about fifteen days past and was busy 
discharging cargo, of which he had already sent part to its owners ; and in another, of the 
21st of December, he notifies me that whilst he was on shore for the purpose of getting 
through with the custom-house papers, on the 27th of November, a heavy Rale arose which 
caused the vessel to disappear from the place where she was at anchor without his having 
any knowledge of it, for which reason he feared seme unfortunate event. In this state of 
things, and without having been able to advance in any way in what might point out/where 
the Raton del Nilo had brought up, on the 15th day of January last arrived, and on that 
day the cook of said vessel, Jose Suarez, presented himself to the deponent, stating to him 
that he had just reached this city from New Orleans, whither he had been carried with his 
other comrades in the vessel, adding, that while anchored in the roads of Matamoras a 
heavy storm came on from the north on the 27th of November, and that about ten o'clock 
at night the chain cable broke, by reason whereof they saw they were under the necessity, 
although the captain was on shore, of making sail ; that after two days lymg to, the wind 
fell and the currents carried them about thirty-five miles from Matamoras ; that on the 
2d of December, about ten o'clock in the morning, they hove in sight of a steamer coming 
towards them, and that it would be about eleven o'clock when the said steamer took them 
prisoners, it turning out that it was the American war steamer Nerlande ; that they took 
out all the crew of the pilot-boat and carried them on board the steamer, sending the Raton 
del Nilo to Matagorda manned by sailors from the steamer, which carried them to the bay 
of Matamoras in the Nerlande, where the captain of the steamer neither gave information 
of the capture which he had made, nor allowed them to advise the captain of the Ratou, or 
to communicate with any person whatever ; that from thence they were taken in the same 
steamer to Matagorda, where the pilot-boat arrived the 8tiu or 9th of December ; that at 
Matagorda they put on board the pilot-boat the second mate, two seamen, and the cook, 
who declares that at night, and without the commission of any offence, they were placed 
in shackles and handcuffed until the 28th, when they reached New Orleans ; that on the 
29th they went to make oath at the commandant's, where they were set at liberty, the 
captain's chest remaining at the commandant's ; that in this state of tbings, for himself 
and in the name of his principal, interested as they are in the said pilot-boat Raton del Nilo, 
and because of the great damage they have suffered by the violent and arbitrary capture of 
that vessel without any cause that justifies it, he protests once, twice, and thrice, and as 
often as may be necessary according to law, against the capturing vessel and against every 
one who may be liable, to tbe end that they return the bark and indemnify all losses and 
damages they have suffered, and all interests they had therein duly estimated, to the end 
that through the evidence of this protest there be established at this consulate the proper 
reclamation on the federal government, without prejudice to the protestaut availing of his 
rights by all lawful means. 

In faith whereof these presents are signed, and by the witnesses subscribing, at the date 
above expressed. 

MIGUEL DE GUIMERA. 
As witness : G. Mkxexdez. 
As witness : C. Biisson. 

Before me, acting consul in charge. 

JOSE DE CABARGA. 

And that the party interested may give it in evidence when it may be proper, I sign the 
present, authenticated by the seal of this consulate, at the Havana, the 8th of February, 
1864. 

In charge of the consulate, 

JOSE DE CABARGA, 
Mexican Consulate at the Havana. 

Washington. February 18, 1864. 
A true copy : 

IGNO. MARISCAL, Secretary. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 83 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, February 20, 1864. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 18th 
instant, enclosing copy of the protest from the Mexican consul at the Havana, 
against the capture, by a war steamer of the United States, of the pilot-boat 
Raton del Nilo, and to inform you that I have communicated translations of the 
same to the Secretary of the Navy for the necessary information. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurance of my high con- 
sideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Matias Romero, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, February 24, 1864. 
Sir: I have the honor to enclose for your information the copy of a letter, 
dated yesterday, from the Secretary of the Navy, in relation to the capture of 
the Mexican pilot-boat Raton del Nilo, which was the subject of your note of 
the 18th instant. 

I will communicate to you such further information upon the result of the ad- 
miralty proceedings as may be received. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my high 
consideration, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Matias Romero, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



Navy Department, February 23, 1864. 
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, en- 
closing a translation of a note dated the 18th instant from Mr. Rornero, Mexican minister, 
accompanied by a protest relative to the capture by one of our naval vessels of the Mexi- 
can pilot-boat Raton del Nilo, and requesting such information on the subject as the files 
of this department may afford. 

From a communication received by the department from Lieutenant Commander "W". N. 
Allen, commanding the United States steamer New London, dated the 8th of December 
last, it appears that he captured the "Raton del Nilo" on the 3d of that month in lat- 
itude 26° 36" N., and ten miles east of Padre island, Texas, she having neither log-book 
nor papers. The person at the time in charge of her stated that while at anchor in the 
Rio Grande the cable parted in a norther and the vessel had been driven by the wind to 
the locality of the capture, and had not had a fair wind to get back. Lieutenant Com- 
mander Allen transmits to the department an abstract from the log of the New London, 
as showing that it would have been impossible for a vessel to have drifted to the north- 
ward at the time stated. The cargo of the Raton del Nilo consisted of coffee, sugar, cod- 
fish, wine, percussion caps, &c. 

The vessel was sent to New Orleans for adjudication, and the prize court there will, 
doubtless, properly dispose of the question as to the legality of the seizure. 
Very respectfully, &c, > 

GIDEON WELLES, 

Secretary of the Navy. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



84 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 



No. 11. — Condition of Affairs in Mexico. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, March 31, 1863, (with 13 enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, April 12, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, November 6, 1863, (with 1 enclosure ) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, November 6, 1863. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, January 26, 1864, (with enclosures ) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, January 31, 1861, (with enclosures ) 

Mr, Seward to Mr. Romero, February 11, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 2, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 20, 1864, (with enclosures ) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 24, 1864, (with enclosures ) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 25, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, March 8, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 26, 1864, (with enclosure ) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, February 29, 1864, (with enclosures ) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, March 2, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, March 1, 1864, (with 10 enclosures.) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, March 2, 1864, (with 13 enclosures.) 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, May 10, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, May 31, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, May 23, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, May 25, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, May 24, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, May 25, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, May 28, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, June 2, 1864. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, May 31, 1864, (with enclosures.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, June 15, 1864. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seivard. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, March 31, 1S63. 

Mr. Secretary: While continuing the review of the public events which 
have occurred in Mexico, which I have had the honor to submit to your depart- 
ment since the commencement of the war which the Emperor of the French is 
waging against my country, I now proceed to refer to you those which occurred 
during the months of January and February of the present year, as they appear 
from the official documents which I have just received from my government, 
and of which I transmit you copies in English, as per form indicated in the an- 
nexed Index. 

When I transmitted to you my note of the 23th of January last, in which I 
had the honor to submit to you the events which had occurred in the republic 
during the month of December previous, the French army was in possession of 
Jalapa and Tampico, besides the other places of the Mexican territory of which 
it has been in possession since the defeat which General Lorencez suffered on 
the 5th of May, 1862. General Forcy very soon convinced himself of the im- 
possibility of his retaining both cities in his power, and whether it was because 
he required the forces which garrisoned them to carry on his operations against 
Puebla, or because he could not maintain, with the probabilities of security, small 
garrisons in cities which were decidedly hostile to the intervention, he deter- 
mined to evacuate both positions. General Berthier consequently abandoned 
Jalapa on the 15th of December, marching with the forces of his command in 
the direction of Puebla. General Rivera, in command of a small brigade of cav- 
alry and some infantry of the Mexican army, prepared two ambuscades for the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 85 

French ; the first at the " Parage de los Carros," and the second at "Cruz Blanca." 
The first encounter occurred on the 17th, and in the second he was compelled 
to join issue with a very superior force of the enemy in a formal battle which 
lasted for three hours. I enclose, under Nos. 1 and 2, the official reports of 
both actions. The telegraphic despatches Avhich I sent you, marked Nos. 17 
and IS, with my aforesaid note of the 2Sth January, referred to these reports. 

The French had scarcely evacuated Jalapa, when that city was occupied by the 
patriot forces in its environs, as appears from the official report, also enclosed, No. 3. 
The pretended government Avhich the French set up in it melted away the in- 
stant the support of foreign bayonets was withdrawn, and what occurred in Ja- 
lapa has been repeated in all the other towns which the French have occupied, 
and will be repeated in all the others they may hereafter occupy. The general 
feeling with which the Mexican people rejects the intervention cannot be more 
clearly manifested. The main body of the French army which was at Orizaba 
commenced its march on the 30th of November last in the direction of Puebla. 
These forces were divided into two corps ; the first followed the national road 
from Orizaba to Puebla, and the second took the road of San Andres Chalchi- 
comula, which town was occupied on the 4th of December, while at the same 
time another column entered San Augustin del Palmar. 

A portion of the forces which took the road of Puebla occupied Tehuacan on 
the 21st of December, and shortly after abandoned it. General Forey left Ori- 
zaba on the 23d February. Shortly before doing so, he issued a proclamation 
in which he announced that the French army was about marching upon the 
city of Mexico. Up to the 2d of this month there were, however, no indications 
that the invading forces intended immediately to attack Puebla. Up to that 
time they had been engaged in marching and countermarching in all directions, 
in occupying defenceless towns and afterwards abandoning them, and the object 
of their multifarious movements seems to have been to obtain the supplies which 
the patriot Mexicans stationed between Vera Cruz and Orizaba do not permit 
freely to pass. During the month of February last past there had been no en- 
counter of any consequence between the contending forces. While the garrison 
of Puebla was impatiently awaiting the attack, the pickets of the Mexican cav- 
alry have scarcely allowed a day to pass without annoying the enemy. No col- 
umn of the invaders can go in search of provisions or forage, or reconnoitre the 
country, without meeting in their transit with obstacles more or less serious. 
The Mexican pickets sometimes penetrate into the centre of the towns occupied 
by the French, and in the daily fights they have with them, and in which fre- 
quently the advantages are on their side, they have seen that it is possible to 
overcome an enemy which had been represented to them as irresistible. 

In order to complete the history of the movement of the French army upon 
Puebla, I transmit copies of the proclamation of General Forey, to which I 
have previously referred, and of the other which he addressed, on the 16th of 
February, to the inhabitants of Orizaba, thanking them for the courtesy with 
which they have treated his soldiers, which he acknowledges is not due to sym- 
pathy for the cause which they defend. 

The Mexican government ordered General Comonfort to place himself, with 
a part of the army of the centre, at San Martin Tesmelucan, distant eight leagues 
from Puebla, in order to protect the garrison of said city. Meantime the con- 
tingents from several of the states were arriving at the city of Mexico, which, 
added to the force which had remained there, would form a sufficient garrison 
to defend the place, even in case General Forey should determine to lay siege 
to it without attacking Puebla. The quotas of the state of Michoacan, and those 
of Guanajuato and Sinaloa, were on their march to the capital. 

The military operations undertaken in other parts of the Mexican territory 
have not been more successful for the French arms. The forces which had occu- 
pied Tampico were defeated at Pueblo Viejo, on the 21st of December, in at- 



86 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

tempting to dislodge the Mexican army at that place. Among the documents 
annexed, marked No. 4, 1 enclose a copy of the official report of that action. About 
the beginning of January, the invading forces made preparations for evacuating 
Tampico. The Spanish vice-consul at that port, upon receiving notice thereof, 
addressed himself to General Garza, commanding in chief the Mexican forces in 
Tamaulipas, asking of him guarantees for the foreigners, and especially for the 
Frenchmen residing at Tampico, and even for the Mexicans who had remained 
at that port during the French occupation. General Garza replied by saying 
that the foreigners residing in Tampico, including the Frenchmen who had not 
joined the invaders, would enjoy all the rights which the law of nations concedes 
to them, and that with respect to the Mexicans who had remained in Tampico 
during its occupation, the interposition of the Spanish vice-consul could only be 
considered as in an officious light, and that, in any event, he would act with 
equity and moderation. 

I enclose copies of the communications relating to this affair, numbered 5, 6, 
and 7. 

On the 13th of January last the French evacuated Tampico, and on the same 
day it was occupied by the Mexican forces, as appears from the official report 
annexed, marked No. 8. The French force composing the expedition was de- 
layed upon the bar, the bad weather not permitting them to embark in the trans- 
ports. General Garza sent a section of 500 men to annoy the French upon the 
bar, and notwithstanding that they are there well protected by their war vessels, 
and by temporary fortifications which they had constructed, they were attacked 
on the evening of the 20th of January referred to. Subsequently the French 
burnt the houses at the bar, and when the section sent on the expedition again 
attacked them on the 21st, they found the village in ashes, and the French em- 
barking in the war steamer La Lance and in a steam gunboat. Upon being 
attacked by the Mexican forces, they attempted to come down the river ; the 
gunboat succeeded in so doing, and the steamer, losing the channel, went on 
shore, exposed to the fire of the Mexican forces, which, owing to the short dis- 
tance at which they were, suffered much injury, without receiving any in return, 
as they were protected by the sand-banks on the coast, though they were op- 
posed both by the steamer and the French squadron which was outside the bar. 
Night brought on a suspension of the hostilities of the 21st, which were renewed 
on the morning of the 22d with still greater fury. The French being unable to 
get off the steamer La Lance, and the losses on board of her being very consid- 
erable, they determined to set fire to her, first removing her crew and the force 
on board, and abandoning the provisions, armament, and other effects consti- 
tuting her cargo, a part of which, notwithstanding the conflagration, were taken 
out by the Mexican forces. The enemy left, besides, at the mouth of the river 
Panuco, the American schooner Eugenia, laden with munitions of war, the her- 
maphrodite brig Indus, laden with provisions, and the bark France and Britain, 
with a cargo of coal, and two large iron lighters. The wheel-steamer Reforma, 
which the French had captured, was also abandoned on the bar, after having 
been rendered completely useless by the invaders, whose destructive propen- 
sities M'ere fully carried out upon everything within their power. Not content 
with burning a defenceless village, they destroyed a steamer, the only use of 
which was to facilitate the entrance into Tampico of merchant vessels, and the 
want of which will be principally felt by foreign merchants. I enclose the 
official reports of the action near the bar, marked Nos. 9 and 10. Thus ended 
the French occupation of Tampico, and it is a fair sample of what awaits the 
invaders throughout the Mexican territory. They not only did not obtain the 
mules they had gone in search of — not only were tiny not able to retain a town upon 
the coast where their naval forces give them so great an advantage, but they 
were compelled to abandon precipitately the second maritime custom-house of 
Mexico upon the gulf, leaving to their fate the few deluded Mexicans who had 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 87 

followed them, destroying a war steamer belonging to the imperial navy, leaving 
in the hands of the Mexican army a large amount of provisions and munitions 
of war, and abandoning, both beaten and crestfallen, a position in which they 
had the aid of their powerful squadron. 

A few days before the French found themselves compelled to abandon Tam- 
pico with such great disadvantages, the French navy suffered another disaster in 
the Pacific. A small French squadron, composed of the Pallas, bearing the flag of 
Rear-Admiral Bonet, the Bayonnaise, the Diamant, and the Galathee, mounting 
in all sixty guns, appeared on the 8th of January before the town of Acapulco, 
making the singular demand from the chief of the Mexican forces at that port 
. that he should give the lie to a publication published in the Ohaleco, a newspaper 
of Callao, in Peru, in an article relating to the excesses committed by the frigate 
Bayonnaise at Acapulco about the end of August, 1862, when General Ghilardi 
was in command of the garrison of Acapulco, and to whom the article in question 
had been attributed. The French squadron also demanded the no less singular 
privilege of being permitted to provision, coal, and water, as though Acapulco 
were neutral ground. The pretension that the Mexican authorities should dis- 
avow the publications of the foreign press is in itself so extraordinary a pro- 
ceeding, that it can scarcely be supposed that a French rear-admiral should make 
of it a casus belli. Upon issuing that relating to the neutrality of Acapulco, it 
appears that Rear- Admiral Bonet had forgotten that Acapulco is an integral 
part of the republic of Mexico ; that Mexico is at war with France, and that to 
propose that a hostile squadron be permitted to enter and leave freely that port, 
in order that it might provide itself, in one part of the territory of Mexico, with 
the means it requires for the purpose of attacking another portion of the same 
country, is the most absurd thing that can be imagined. General Alvarez re- 
plied, as it was most natural, by refusing both these demands, in consequence of 
which the French squadron opened itsubatteries upon Acapulco on the morning of 
the 10th, with the immense advantage of having rifled guns ; its fire caused great 
damage, without, in return, receiving any injury, because their vessels were 
beyond the reach of the Mexican artillery. As the result of so unequal a con- 
test, several pieces of the Mexican artillery, used in the defence of the place, were 
dismounted. The houses, which had been disoccupied, previously, by order of 
the military authority, were soon reduced to ruins in consequence of the three 
days' bombardment which they suffered. The defenders of the port remained 
in Fort Alvarez, the only one which could resist the fire of the enemy, ready to 
oppose the landing of the French, which it was believed would have taken place, 
for it was not possible to believe that the anger of the French should limit itself 
to knocking down unoccupied buildings. The forces which were to have landed 
did not attempt to do so, and on the 12th they withdrew from the port without 
having occupied it, and without obtaining water, provisions, or coal, and with- 
out having obtained the objects they had intended. The bombardment of Aca- 
pulco was therefore an act of barbarism, which effected no result whatever favor- 
able to the French . 

By this bombardment the property belonging to foreigners was destroyed, 
and this is not the first occasion upon which they have had to lament the kind 
of protection which France declares she has come to give them. Among the 
annexed documents I transmit the official report of the action at Acapulco, 
from No. 11 to No. 19, inclusive. The bombardment of Acapulco is not the 
only act of barbarism committed by the French. The official report of the out- 
rages which they perpetrated at Tehuacan, which I enclose under No. 20, is 
simply an exact account of the scenes which occur in all the towns which fall 
under the French yoke. The most arbitrary spoliations, the most unheard of 
violences, the banishment to Martinique upon the most flimsy motives, and 
even from the simple fact of professing opinions contrary to the intervention ; 
the most outrageous ill-treatment, and other wrongs of this same character, are 



88 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

very frequent occurrences in the towns which are so unfortunate as to suffer the 
French rule for a shorter or longer period. Among the cases of deportation 
which have occurred, the more notable ones are those of Don Alberto Lopez, 
and of the licentiate Don Antonio Corona. The latter was at one time the 
governor and president of the superior tribunal of the State of Vera Cruz, and 
the former is a distinguished citizen of Orizaba. Both of them had retired to 
private life, and both were violently dragged from their homes to be deported 
to an island whose climate is deadly. Banishments have occurred by the 
wholesale, and upon the most trivial causes, of many other persons, who, though 
more humble in their spheres than those named, in no manner diminish the 
criminality of the outrage. In the document No. 4 enclosed herewith, you 
will see the barbarous treatment to which four Mexican citizens have been sub- 
jected, who were banished from Orizaba; the offence of one of them, Don Diego 
Miron, being his having defended the honor of one of his daughters, threatened 
by a French officer. 

General Forey, knowing the necessity of giving a light coloring of legality 
to proceedings so arbitrary and iniquitous, issued a circular (number 22) on the 
6th of January last, in which he provides that a military commission composed of 
French officers shall determine upon "all offences which may endanger the secu- 
rity of the French army," under which loose definition maybe included, at the will 
of the French officers, any acts which may occur in the Mexican territory. There 
has besides been perpetrated another brutal outrage by»'the French army, and 
through which the laws of war not less than the sovereignty of the United 
States have been outraged. The commandant, Florian Bernardi, who served 
in the brigade of Rivera, offered, in compliance with an order from General Or- 
tega, to escort with four dragoons Mr. William H. Corwin, secretary of the 
United States legation in Mexico, Mr. Marcus Ottenbourgb, consul of the 
United States in the city of Mexico, and Mr. N. A. Cajat, the consular agent 
of the United States at Puebla, on the journey they made to Vera Cruz, 
about the end of December, 1S62, with the view of taking to the city of Mexico 
the correspondence of the government of the United States to their minister in 
Mexico, which had been detained at said port of Vera Cruz. This escort, em- 
ployed upon a peaceful mission, was under the protection of the United States, 
in the service of whose agents it was at that time. Notwithstanding this fact, 
and their carrying a white flag, the commandant Florian Bernardi and his dra- 
goons were captured upon their arrival at Perote, and shortly afterwards the 
said commandant and one dragoon were shot to death, and the three others 
were banished to Martinique. This act of barbarity, which would put to the 
blush the tribes of the Caffres, has been committed by one of the generals of 
the highest grade in the army which pretends to bring civilization to Mexico. 
The truth of the facts which I have just related is sustained by the written 
declarations of the secretary of the United States legation in Mexico, and of 
the consul of the United States in the same city, of which I transmit copy, 
marked No. 23. How far this iniquitous proceeding affects the dignity and 
sovereignty of the United States, is a matter which it becomes their govern- 
ment to determine. 

Many of the soldiers of the French army, who are gradually becoming satis- 
fied that neither Mexico nor its government are in the state of disorganization 
which had been described to them, and who, on the contrary, find that they are 
used as instruments for establishing oppression and despotism in a country 
where the most ample liberty is enjoyed, founded upon principles in defence of 
which these same soldiers have fought gloriously at other periods and places. 
have become disgusted with so iniquitous an expedition, and have begun to 
abandon a flag which now only represents the cause of barbarism, oppression 
and conquest. Among the documents annexed, I transmit two communications, 
(Nos. 25 and 20) from General Ortega, in which he announces that several de- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 89 

sertera from the French army have presented themselves to him. Many others 
have gone towards Oajaca, and as yet no information is had as to their numbers. 
The Mexican government deemed it its duty to favor these desertions, and 
issued to that end the instructions of which I transmit a copy, (No. 24,) in 
which it «recommends to the generals of the national army to extend succor to 
the deserters who may present themselves, to give them passports to such 
places at which they may desire to establish themselves, and to make known to 
them the friendly disposition of the Mexican government to receive them as 
colonists in the republic. These orders have produced the best results: ten 
deserters from different regiments of the invading army have publicly acknowl- 
edged, in a communication addressed to the President, (No. 27,) the kind man- 
ner in which they have been received by the authorities of the republic ; and 
this manifestation, while it will encourage other soldiers to follow the same 
example, will tend to dissipate the fears which the French officers have sought 
to instil into the minds of their soldiers with respect to the pretended sufferings 
and tortures which awaited the French deserters at the hands of the Mexican 
authorities. The injustice and iniquity of the invasion are so clearly manifest, 
even to the very soldiers of France, that many of them have been compelled 
to resort to an expedient of which there are but very few examples in the 
annals of the French army, and, if the war should be prolonged for any length 
of time, it threatens to disband the invading army. 

The government of Mexico, while it desires to favor the desertions which 
will weaken an army engaged in the conquest of the eountry, does not avail 
itself of any undue means, and which are not conformable to the laws of war, 
to bring about such a result, and has not attempted to exercise any kind of 
coercion upon the hostile soldiers which have come under «their authority. The 
following case proves the truth of this assertion : Upon its becoming known in 
Mexico that General Forey had set at liberty some prisoners belonging to the 
national army, the government of the republic determined to do as much with 
respect to several French prisoners which it held in the capital, directing at the 
same time that they should be provided with the funds necessary to return to 
the headquarters of the invading army, or to establish themselves in some other 
part of the Mexican territory. The prisoners decided to accept the first-named 
alternative, and they were allowed to join the enemy's ranks. These are the 
acts of humanity which it is customary with the Mexican government to ex- 
tend, and whom the agents of the Emperor of the French incessantly calum- 
niate in Europe. I enclose herewith (marked No. 28) the documents relating 
to this affair. 

Mr. Wagner, the minister resident of his Majesty the King of Prussia in 
Mexico, who jointly had under his protection the . interests of the Spanish, 
French, and Belgian subjects, received the authority of his government to re- 
turn to Berlin, and upon his departure from the city of Mexico he very 
properly left the said subjects under the protection of their respective consuls, 
but he committed the mistake of desiring to leave the said subjects and consuls 
under the extraordinary protection of the minister of the United States. As 
was most natural, neither the Mexican government nor Mr. Oorwin could 
sanct on by their approval a proceeding which was so greatly contrary to inter- 
national uses, and Mr. Wagner, in a note to the Mexican government, which 
was received at the department for 'foreign affairs two days after his depar- 
ture from the capital, stated that he left the subjects referred to under the safe- 
guard of the diplomatic corps, and "relying, above all, on the honor and loyalty 
of the Mexican people." By such conduct Mr. Wagner has attempted to cast 
reproach upon the Mexican government with the least reason for so doing, 
because the said government has given daily proofs that it causes the rights of 
foreigners to be respected, which are conceded to them by the treaties, and that 
it knows how to extend its humanity even to the point of continuing to guar- 



90 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



antee these same rights to the foreigners who have forfeited them in conse- 
quence of the war, as is actually the case with the French residing in Mexico. 
The government of Mexico energetically repelled the insult implicated in the 
note of Mr. Wagner, in a note addressed to Mr. Corwin, of which I enclose a 
copy, and also of all the other communications which refer to this matter. 
Other letters have been intercepted, addressed to Mr. J. B. Jecker, by some of 
his friends, relatives, and partners in Europe, and which show how far the 
business of stock-jobbing of this speculator have influenced in causing the war 
which the French government is waging against Mexico. I enclose these let- 
ters, as per No. 38. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, Sfc. 



Enclosures with Mr. Romero's letter of 31st March, 1863. 

[Translation.] 

Index of the documents this day transmitted by the Mexican legation to the Department 
of State of the United States, annexed to its note of the 31st of March, 1863, relating to 
events which transpired in Mexico during the months of January and February, 1863. 




10 
11 



12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 



General Eivera to 
General Ortega. 

Same to same 

General Ortega to 
General Blanco. 

Colonel LaraySolis 
to General Blan- 
co. 

General Garza to 
General Blanco. 



Mr. Obregon to 

General Garza. 
General Garza to 

Mr. Obregon. 
Colonel Pavon to 

General Blanco. 
General Garza to 

General Blanco. 

Same to same 

General Alvarez to 

General Blanco. 



Commander Bonet 

to Mr. Van Brunt. 
Captain Le Bris to 

General Alvarez. 
General Alvarez to 

Mr. Van Brunt. 
Captain Le Bris to 

General Alvarez. 
General Alvarez to 

Captain Le Bris. 
General Alvarez to 

General Blanco. 



Date. 


Dec. 


17, 


1862 


Dec. 


20, 


1862 


Jan. 


21, 


1863 


Dec. 


22, 


1862 


Jan. 


10, 


1863 


Jan. 


9, 


1863 


Jan. 


10, 


1863 


Jan. 


13, 


1863 


Jan. 


22, 


1863 


Feb. 


7, 


1863 


Jan. 


10, 


1863 


Jan. 


8, 


1863 


Jan. 


8, 


1863 


Jan. 


9, 


1863 


Jan. 


9, 


1863 


Jan. 


9, 


1863 


Jan. 


11, 


1863 



Contents. 



Official report of the action at the Parage de- 

Carros. 
Official report of the battle of Cruz Blanca. 
Official report of the occupation of Jalapa by 

the Mexican forces. 
Official report of the battle of Pueblo Viejo. 



Transmits copies of the correspondence between 

General Garza and the vice-consul of Spain at 

Tampico respecting the protection of foreigners 

residing there. 
Requesting protection for foreigners residing in 

Tampico. 
Replies that the rights conceded by treaty to 

foreigners will be respected. 
Official report of the evacuation of Tampico by 

the French army. 
Official report of the occupation of Tampico by 

the Mexican army and of the action on the bar. 
Detailed report of above action. 
Transmits copies of correspondence between the 

Mexican army and the French squadron prior 

to the bombardment of Acapulco. 
Proposal of conditions to prevent hostilities on 

his part 
Memorandum — same subject. 

He replies that he cannot accede to the condi- 
tions of Commander Bonet. 

Respecting the conditions demanded by the 
French squadron. 

Replies that he cannot accept such conditions. 

Official report of the battle of Acapulco, of the 
10th January. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 
Index of documents — Continued. 



91 



From — To. 



Date, 



Contents. 



General Alvarez to 

General Blanco. 

Same to same 



General Ortega to 
General Blanco. 

General Carbojal to 
General Ortega. 

J. D. St. Armand.. . 

From the U. S. con- 
sul in the city of 
Mexico and the 
secretary of the 
U. S. legation in 
the same city. 

General Ortega 



General Ortega to 
General Blanco. 
Same to same .. 



From French de- 
serters. 

Commander Tapia. 



The President to 
the Diario official. 



Mr. Wagner to Mr. 

Fuente. 
Mr. Fuente to Mr. 

Wagner. 
Mr. Wagner to Mr. 

Fuente. 



Mr. Fuente to Mr. 

Wagner. 
Mr. Wagner to Mr. 

Fuente. 



Mr. Fuente to Mr. 

Corwin. 
General Forey to 

the Mexicans. 
General Forey to 

the citizens of 

Orizaba. 



Jan. 12, 1863 

Jan. 13, 1863 

Dec. 31, 1862 

Jan. 7, 1863 

Jan. 20, 1863 

Jan. 4, 1863 



Feb. 1, 1863 

Feb. 3, 1863 
Feb. 12, 1863 
Feb. 14, 1863 

Jan. 9, 1863 

Feb. 22, 1863 

Jan. 22, 1863 
Jan. 30, 1863 
Feb. 9, 1863 

Feb. 12, 1863 
Feb. 17, 1863 

Feb. 24, 1863 
Feb. 15, 1863 
Feb. 16, 1863 



Official report of the actions of 10th and 11th 

January at Acapulco. 
Official report of the withdrawal of the French 

squadron from Acapulco. 
Official report of the spoliations of the French 

army at Tehuacan. 
The outrages of the French upon four Mexican 

citizens sent to Vera Cruz. 
Circular of the French army to have them tried 

by a military commission. 
Official report of the assassination by the French 

of an officer and two soldiers of the Mexican 

army who were under the protection of the 

United States. 



Instructions of the Mexican government relating 
to the protection to be granted to deserters 
from the French army. 

Notice of his aiding and sending a French de- 
serter to Mexico. 

Notice of his aiding and sending seven French 
deserters to Mexico. 

From ten deserters from the French army to 
the President of Mexico, thanking him for 
their kind reception. 

Official report of his release of five French prison- 
ers, with passports and means to return to the 
invading army. 

Denies the statement of General O'Donnell, 
which alleges that the President was desirous 
of selling two of the Mexican States to the 
United States. 

Permission to leave Mexico, and asking for pass- 
ports and escorts. 

Granting his requests. 

Notice that he leaves the Europeans residing in 
Mexico under the care of their consuls and 
the special protection of the legation of the 
United States. 

The Mexican government cannot accept the 
above measure. 

The minister of the United States declining to 
accept this commission, he leaves the foreigners 
under the protection of the diplomatic corps 
and the loyalty of the Mexican people. 

The impropriety of the conduct of Mr. Wagner. 

Proclamation. The invading army marching 
upon Mexico. 

Proclamation ; thanking them for their good 
treatment of the French army — not due to 
their sympathy for the cause of intervention. 

Eleven intercepted letters to the friends, rela- 
tives, and partners of J. B. Jecker, residing in 
Europe, respecting the condition of their 
affairs. 



KOMERO. 



Washington, March 31, 1864. 



92 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 1. 

[Translation.] 

LIBERAL ARMY, RIVERA'S BRIGADE. 

I have to communicate to you that this very moment (a quarter to 1 p. m.) a little 
engagement has taken place at the point called Parage de Garros, half a league from this 
place, caused by one of the ambuscades which, according to what I have stated in my 
former report, I had been preparing with my infantry, in connexion with citizen Colonel 
Antonio Rodriguez, with the national guard of FJacolulam. 

I am not aware of the loss of the enemy at this moment. They were fearfully cut up 
by our fire, which was at close quarters, by about 300 infantry. A dense fog favored us, 
while it prevented me from ascertaining immediately the results. 

The line of the ambuscade covered about three blocks, and its effects have fully satisfied 
me. I withdrew subsequently with my small corps of infantry and cavalry in the best 
order, the enemy being only at a very short distance from the latter. I consider it un- 
necessary to recommend to you the nations of Flacolulam, who have behaved so hand- 
somely, in company of the citizen Lieutenant Colonel Jose' M. Grajale, whom I personally 
invited to second this movement. I retire to the Cerros de Leon and of Molinos, where I 
intend to cause yet more damage to the invaders on his passage, as I will to-morrow make 
another attack. 



Citizen General-in-Chief of the Army of the East. 
Las Vigas, December 17, 1862. 

A true copy: 



AURELIANO RIVERA.. 

"Washington, March 31, 1863. 
ROMERO. 



No. 2. 
[Translation.] 

LIBERAL ARMY, BRIGADE RIVERA. 

As I promised you day before yesterday evening to give you a detailed account of the 
action which took place the same day between the brigade which I command and the in- 
vading enemy, I have now the pleasure of fulfilling that promise. 

At 9 o'clock a. m. on the ISt-h I evacuated the village Perote, taking direction of the 
Molinos and of Sierra de Agua, with the intention of attacking the enemy on his rearguard 
if circumstances should favor me. 

I had received before positive information that the traitors, to the number of 1,500 men, 
were covering the rear guard of this army, and immediately I fixed my attention on them 
at the moment when the invading enemy had the advantage of an immense numerical su- 
periority. I arrived at Sierra de Agua, whence I took the direction of Cerro de Leon, in 
order to come out near Cruz Blanca, at a point where I could break his line. 

Enveloped by a thick fog which disguised the distance to such a degree that objects at 
fifteen or twenty paces could not be distinguished, I was induced to advance with an escort 
of rifieros, in order to assure myself with my own eyes when the enemy would pass the 
point indicated. The sound of artillery announced to me that the traitors were advancing 
upon my position, and suddenly a fierce combat began between my rifleros and a small de- 
tachment of the traitor cavalry, whom I sought to draw forth upon an advantageous spot, 
in order to put into execution my other plans. 

In consequence of this, I sent word to citizen Edward Manuel Quesada that he should 
draw out upon an advantageous spot the corps of his command, in order to resist success- 
fully the attack of the enemy. I afterwards saw a large body of French cavalry detach- 
ing itself, evidently with the intention of making a charge, and sent immediately to meet 
it the resguardo of Tlaxcala, under the orders of citizen Colonel Doroteo Leon, who had the 
glory of resisting in an admirable manner a sudden attack, by driving the French cavalry 
back in the greatest disorder. 

At this moment, seeing myself equally supported by the rcyuardo of Huamantla, under 
the command of citizen Colonel Antonio Rodriguez 1 was able to make a charge which 
drove back the enemy into the midst of the in tan try and artillery. The latter I was un- 
able to get into my possession, owing to the fact that two battalions or more were aiming to 
turn my right flank, at the same time that another battalion, deployed as sharpshooters, were 
combining in an attack on the left Hank, thus placing me between three fires. I immedi- 
ately ordered the citizen commandant Ugalde to proceed to the right llank at a place whence 
he could ohserve and communicate to me any movement of said battalions. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 93 

Favored as we were by the lay of the land, this action lasted three hours and a half, at 
the expiration of which time prudence admonished me to order a countermarch. The 
enemy, encouraged by this move, wished to make a new and heavy charge, but could not 
succeed in his object, because, at the distance of 1,000 yards, in consequence of the precau- 
tion which I had taken, the squadrons Quesada and Esploradoes were formed, under com- 
mand of citizen Lieutenant Colonel Geronimo Fragoso, and the enemy stopped as soon as 
he perceived them. I at once retreated to this locality leisurely, and the brigade marching 
in perfect order, the rear guard being covered by the corps Quesada and Fragoso, with ihe 
sharpshooters belonging to them. 

In the second charge a circumstance took place which I will not allow myself to pass 
unmentioned. Citizen Colonel Rodriguez encountered the traitor, Colonel Macario Silva ; 
each recognized the other, and the latter invited Colonel Rodriguez to single combat Rod- 
guez accepted the challenge, and in a few moments later he had killed the traitor. I en- 
close with this report the epa,ulettes worn by Colonel Silva. 

It is impossible for me to state the loss of the enemy, but I can assure you, upon my 
word of honor, that they were considerable. We captured eleven Arabian and five Mexi- 
can horses, beside pack-horses, a large number of arms, and five prisoners, (traitors,) who 
were immediately put to death. 

For my part, I have to deplore the loss of the citizen commanding the squadron, Rafael. 
Ledezma, of the force of Rodriguez ; also that of citizen Lieutenant Loreto Velasco, of the 
corps of Fragoso, besides nineteen soldiers of different corps, more than a dozen wounded, 
and thirteen prisoners. 

Citizen general, words fail to describe the heroic conduct of the citizen chiefs, officers, 
and soldiers who compose the brigade which I am proud to command. In the heat of the 
combat only the noble cries of " Independence forever ! Liberty forever! Death to the 
traitors ! Death to France ! " were uttered. 

Receive the expressions of my distinguished regards, and it will give me great satisfaction 
if you will congratulate in my name the citizen President upon the action which took 
place on the 18th of the present month on the plains of Cerro de Leon and Cruz Blanca 
between a party of national troops and the invading enemy. 

Liberty, independence, or death ! 

AURELIANO RIVERA. 

Citizen General-in-Chief of the Army of the East. 

Tezuitlan de Mejia, December 20, 1862. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



No. 3. 
[Translation.] 



The citizen military commander of Vera Cruz has communicated to me, under the date of 
the 15th instant, from Jalapa, what follows : 

" I have the honor to inform you that to-day, noon I occupied this village with the 
force which is under my command two hours before it had been evacuated by the enemy, 
who now are two leagues from here." 

I have the honor to transmit it to you, so that you may inform the supreme magistrate 
of the republic of the same. 

Liberty and reform ! 

Headquarters at Zaragoza, January 21, 1863. 

J. GONSALES ORTEGA. 
Citizen Minister of Wae, Mexico. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 4. 

[Extracts. — Translation.] 

o o a On the 21st we arrived at Pueblo Viejo with the object of cutting off all com- 
munication with the place occupied by the French, and of attacking them should they 



94 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

present themselves. We placed several guerillas on observation at El Humo, Las Piedras, 
la Polvora, and San Francisco, covering with the balance of the infantry forces all the line 
along tbe beach of the Laguna de Pueblo Viejo. During that day and night following it 
nothing new occurred; on the 22d, about 11 o'clock in the morning, two gunboats 
and some Frenchmen were seen on the side of El Humo, reconnoitring our camp, and 
having observed our guerillas, they fired their guns and muskets in that direction ; a slight 
skirmishing took place with them, causing the invaders to fall back. In the evening Mr. 
Pavon and myself went, without uncovering our lines, to reconnoiter the commanding 
points and to observe the movements going on at Tampico. At that moment two small 
steamers towing five sloops with several boats were approaching by the estero of San Fran- 
cisco; the enemy was on board and intended to surprise us. A cannon shot from the en- 
emy announced to us the attack on the side of the laguna opposite the town ; we returned, 
and Mr. Pavon, the chief of our brigade, remained at the first point on the right wing to 
sustain there the fire with an enemy superior both in material and force. As he was some 
fifty meters from the shore, I ran over myself the line which had been attacked, and I 
was not further than twenty or twenty-five meters when a ball from the enemy killed my 
horse. I was slightly hurt, and although this embarassed my march, I went over on foot 
the remainder of the line. I mounted again and relieved the citizen commander-in-chief, 
so that he might take his turn in running over the line. After a lively and heavy fire for 
three hours, the enemy, unable to resist aDy longer, withdrew with some killed and about 
twenty wounded. About 10 or 11 o'clock in the night, as soon as the unjust invader 
gave up the fight, I ordered the reveille to be beaten all along the line, so as to let the 
people of the town know that we had triumphed over our oppressors. The Mexican honor 
has not been violated on this part of our territory, and the arms of justice have shown 
once more after the example of the hero of Guadalupe, who made them sparkle on the 5th 
of May. There are among the killed two captains and a lieutenant very much beloved by 
the French. Thinking that the enemy would return the following day (23d) by land, and 
in larger numbers, we withdrew the infantry to Tampico el Alto, leaviug the cavalry at 
Pueblo Viejo to observe and draw the enemy into the narrow passes of the mountain, 
doing this at 3 o'clock in the morning in the greatest possible order. At 8 o'clock the 
same morning the enemy, ashamed of their defeat, occupied Pueblo Viejo by land, and 
not finding us there, they most outrageously pillaged the town, during which they broke 
open the doors which were closed. Maddened by their losses of the night previous, and 
knowing that we suffered none, they started for Tampico Alto to exterminate us, as they 
said. We, being prepared to attack them with our guerillas, advanced on the same road to 
meet them, but they had scarcely advanced about one league when they turned back and 
re- embarked for Tampico. The enthusiasm of our soldiers looking for an engagement was 
such that, had the enemy advanced, they would have undoubtedly suffered twice as great 
a loss as on the day before, and we might even have cut off their retreat. The enemy's 
loss is officially confirmed. 

La Graviere had arrived at the bar of Tampico at the very moment we were fighting ; 
6ome people assert that he brings with him more forces, some others pretend that the great- 
est part of the force is to withdraw, and that will only leave a small garrison. 

It is also reported that the chief who attacked us is to be subjected to a court-martial, 
having lost the action. * 8 c- a 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 5. 
[Translation.} 

FOKCES OF TAMAULIPAS, GENERAL- IN-CHIEF. 

For the information of the citizen President of the republic, I enclosed to you 
certified copies of the communications exchanged between the Spanish vice-consul in 
Tampico and the undersigned respecting the evacuation of that port by the invadiug 
forces. By the copies relet rod to you will be advised of the guarantees that I have 
conceded to foreigners, and especially to the French subjects who have not mixed 
themselves in anything with the invader. At the same time please to inform the citizen 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 95 

President that with this date I commenced the march upon that port with the forces at my 
command, to effectuate its occupation and to hostilize the enemy by every means that may 
be possible. 

Country, liberty, and reform ! 

Headquarters in the Hacienda of Chocoy, January 10, 1863. 

JUAN JOSE DE LA GAEZA. 
Citizen Minister of War and Marine, Mexico. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

EOMEEO. 



No. 6. 
[Translation.] 



Consulate op Spain at Tampico, 

Hacienda del Chocoy, January 9, 1863. 

General : The undersigned, vice-consul, has the honor to inform you that M. Charles 
de Saint Charles, who now performs the duties of consul of France, and the commander of 
the French man-of-war Albatros, who actually is the superior commander of the French 
forces occupying the port of Tampico, have addressed to him two communications inform- 
ing him, among other things, that the French forces which garrison said place of Tampico 
will soon evacuate it. 

As you will understand, in circumstances so critical as the present ones, the undersigned 
has thought proper to call on you at your encampment with the object of inquiring of you 
if, in case said evacuation should take place, you, as the superior chief of the liberal forces 
which will occupy it, can grant to peaceful foreigners who find themselves in said place all 
guarantees, and particularly to the French subjects who are there established, and who 
have not taken any part with the forces of their nation. 

With the same sentiments towards the peaceful Mexicans, inhabitants of said town, and 
who are in the same case in which are other foreigners and the French to whom I refer, 
the undersigned would like to know if they may rely upon the same guarantees, request- 
ing you to take into consideration that said place was occupied unexpectedly, and that 
some, from reason of health, and others from want of resources, have been unable to 
abandon their families and interests. 

Please accept on this occasion, general, the expression of my esteem and distinguished 
consideration. God preserve you for many years. 

KAMON DE OBEEGON. 

General Juan Jose de la Garza, 

Commander-in-Chief of the forces operating against Tampico. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

EOMEEO. 



No. 7. 

[Translation.] 

FORCES OP TAMPICO, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. 

I have received the note of your vice-consulate, dated the 9th instant, which has 
acquainted me with the fact that you had been informed by M. Charles de Saint Charles 
anil the commander of the French ship-of-war Albatros, commanding in chief the 
French forces at Tampico, that that place was to be soon evacuated, and for this reason 
you desired to be informed, first, whether the peaceful foreigners, and particularly the 
Frenchmen who have taken no part with the invaders and who are settled in that place, 
were to enjoy all kinds of guarantees ; and, second, if the Mexicans, who find themselves 
in the same case, may rely on the same guarantees, taking into consideration that the place 
had been occupied unexpectedly, and that they could not abandon their families and 
interests, some on account of their health, others for want of resources. 



96 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

I answer the first point by saying that peaceful foreigners or neutrals may count upon all 
the guarantees which international law gives them in such cases, and I say the same 
particularly of all the French residents who have not participated with the invaders, for 
your consulate well knows that through the magnanimity of our government, when their 
Emperor has declared war against us, the guarantees which they are to enjoy are assured 
by our positive and written law. 

The undersigned, considering the second part of your note merely as an officious step 
inspired by sentiments of good will of your consulate, declines answering it, limiting 
himself to declare his opinion that there is room to believe that any reasons which might 
be given by the Mexicans who did not leave the place of Tampico, when it was occupied 
by the French, will be listened to and taken into consideration. 

I beg you to accept the assurance of my consideration and particular esteem. 

Liberty and reform ! 

Headquarters at the Hacienda del Chocoy, January 10, 1863. 

JUAN JOSE DE LA GARZA. 

M. Ramon de Obregon, 

Vice-Consul of E. G. M. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 8. 
[Translation.] 

NATIONAL ARMY, PAVON'S DIVISION, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

Citizen Minister: As I informed you in my communication of the 11th instant, I this 
day, at half past 11 a. m., occupied this town with the forces under my command, 
immediately upon its evacuation by the invaders, by covering at once the principal points, 
seeing that the enemy is still upon the bar with some 800 men. The public tranquillity 
was maintained in a manner highly creditable to the honor of our arms, which have bril- 
liantly sustained their well-deserved national renown. I have, at the same time, given 
notice, by express courier, to the citizen general-in-chief of the forces of this State, of the 
occupation of this important city, in order that he may determine to do whatever he may 
deem proper, and cause his forces to advance, and when united to mine we may consult 
upon the defence of the town in the event of the return of the invaders from the bar, 
whence they cannot embark, there being a cross sea running, and there not being a suffi- 
cient depth of water for their steamers. 

I take pleasure in felicitating you upon this event that you may communicate it to the 
supreme chief of the nation — the abandonment by the foreign enemy of this part of the 
Mexican territory. 

Our country, liberty, and reform ! 

Tampico, January 13, 1863. 

DESIDERIO PAVON. 

Citizen Minister of War, Mexico. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 9. 

[Translation.] 

HEADQUARTERS OF THE FORCES OF TAMAULIPAS AND I1DASTECA, GENERAL-INiCHIEF. 

In conformity with what I explained previously to the ministry at war, with respect to 
attacking the enemy in their embarking, I ordered that a force, consisting of 100 infantry 
of the fust battalion of the State, 200 of the battalion Hidalgo, 100 of the section Pavon, 
100 lancers, and two pieces of rifled artillery, the whole commanded by citizen Colonel 
Rafael de la Garza, should proceed to the bar of the above-named harbor, where tiie enemy 
•were, to make a slight reconnoissance, which took place on the 20th instant without 
anything else occurring beyond the lire of the infantry on both sides, which wa- kept up 
for some time. On the following day, the 21st, citizen Colonel Garza returned to the bar 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 97 

with the same force, and after our artillery had fired several times upon the steamer and 
gunboats which they had there to protect their infantry, the former began to move out, 
but through their haste to leave, and the lively fire which was kept upon our side, it ran 
aground in doing so on the bar. 

To-day it remained yet in the same state, and in order to effect its entire destruction 
our artillery, placed beforehand in that place, repeated its firing upon it, and the other war 
steamers which form the squadron that was outside the harbor, and which there is no 
doubt came to protect it and save it from the danger in which it happened to be. 

All that they attempted was in vain, for notwithstanding having directed all their fire 
of artillery upon our forces, the above-named steamer remained completely in the same 
state, and at last was abandoned by the enemy, who, after having set it on fire, went on 
board the other ships-of-war that were outside the bay. 

The French forces, besides this loss that they have suffered, and which is of some im- 
portance, have left in our possession a one-masted vessel laden with materials of war, a 
larger one filled with provisions, and another of a similar size half laden with a cargo of 
coal. 

To-morrow I shall order to be taken out of the above-named steamer the five pieces of 
artillery with which it was armed, and the other articles which are still serviceable, and as 
soon as I have the papers giving an account of the quantity of. warlike materials and pro- 
visions which are in our possession. I will send you the necessary information, that it may 
be placed before the citizen President of the republic. 

I must likewise mention to you, among other things, that the invaders, before effecting 
their embarcation, completely destroyed by fire all the property in the neighborhood, 
leaving it in consequence reduced to a frightful desert. 

All of which I let you know, that you may be pleased to lay it before the supreme mag- 
istrate of the nation. 

JUAN DE LA GARZA. 

Citizen Minister of War and Marine. 

Tampico, January 22, 1863. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 10. 

Forces of Tampico and Huasteca. 

Tampico, February 7, 1863. 
To the Minister of War, Mexico : 

Colonel Rafael de la Garza, commanding the second division which I ordered against the 
bar of this port, submits to me the following communication under date of the 23d ultimo: 

" In compliance with the orders received from these headquarters to make a reconnoissance 
of the enemy stationed on the bar of this port, I went out on the 20th instant with 400 
infantry of the first Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, and Pavon battalions, 100 lancers of the second 
regiment of the cavalry brigade, and two pieces of rifled ordnance. As I had the honor to 
inform you, on that same day I remained within gun-shot of the enemy with the greater 
part of my division, and I ordered fire to be directed upon him for the purpose of compel- 
ling him to come out from the breastworks and barricades which he had constructed and 
to draw him at the same time from the protection of his gunbqats and war vessels which 
were in the river ; but it was all in vain, and it being already late I had to order a retreat, 
because the bad condition of the caissons obliged me to leave the artillery in the pass of 
Dofla Cecilia, and to make no use of it. Tint being in a better state of preparation, on 
the 21st, in compliance with your orders, I returned to the bar, the houses of which I 
found already set on fire by the French and yet smoking. 

" At that moment in which we saw this the whole force of the enemy that had landed 
re-embarked on board of the war steamer La Lauce, and a gunboat. These vessels were 
yet in the middle of the river ; and' then I arranged that, until the arrival of our artillery, 
which had been delayed by the difficulty of getting over the sandy ground, 100 men of the 
first batallion should be deployed as sharpshooters, protecting themselves by the sand-banks 
in order to take aim. The enemy understood the movement and immediately withdrew 
out of range. At this time our artillery came up ; fire was opened on both sides, and soon 
the barge was compelled to withdraw, and after her the steamer. The latter lost the chan- 
nel and grounded on a sand-bank, where she was exposed to our fire, which, on account of 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 7 



98 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

the shortness of the distance, did her much damage, without any loss to our forces, not- 
withstanding that the grounded steamer as well as the squadron outside the bar cannon- 
aded us at the time, some enfilading vessels having got range of us. This operation lasted 
until night had set in — when the darkness did not permit us to distinguish objects — with- 
out any other accident on our side than the dismounting of one of our pieces. 

" At dawn on the following day, tbe 22d instant, our artillery being placed on the for- 
tification erected on the bar, we began to open fire ; nearly the whole squadron kept up a 
lively cannonade upon us until eleven o'clock in the morning, and we replied quite regu- 
larly on our side. Tbe hostile steamer La Lance was set on fire by the French themselves, 
the crew only having escaped from her, and taking none of the provisions even with them, 
as is shown by the committee of officers who went on board soon after and brought off a 
great part of them, though the vessel was very soon wrapped in flames. For this reason the 
five cannons with which she was armed, which were rifled ones, according to the information 
which I have, as also the quartermaster's stores and other effects which she contained, have 
been lost with the steamer, although I believe that we can yet draw out a great part of 
them and render them useful. 

" In addition to this, the enemy has left in the mouth of the river the American trans- 
port vessel Eugenia, loaded with munitions of war ; the brigantine Indus with provisions ; 
the bark France et Bretagne with pit-coal, two large iron tenders, and a boat with double 
prows. On land were found some wagons, mules, horses, and asses. A report of the num- 
ber and quantity of all these things will be rendered as soon as those eoinmissioned to 
draw it up have concluded it. The tow-boat Reforma, which had been captured by the en- 
emy, was likewise abandoned in the mouth of the bar, they having afterwards set fire to it 
so as to render it useless. 

" I deem it proper to remark, that on the second and third day the expeditionary di- 
vision sent to the bar was augmented by the arrival of the first company of the third bat- 
talion volunteers, of the centre, as also that General Macedonio Capistran, at his own re- 
quest, held himself in readiuess to march with the first regiment of laucers of his brigade, 
and very opportunely took position at the bridge of Chijol for the purpose of protecting 
me in case of necessity. 

" Such has been the result of the expedition intrusted to the undersigned, and in con- 
clusion he considers it due to justice to declare that all the commanders and subordinate 
officers, as well as the soldiers composing the division, have done their duty.'' 

And in transmitting this to you for the information of the President, I should declare 
that I have delayed to despatch this report, because I waited for the completion of the de- 
tailed accounts of all the articles taken from the enemy, which I have now the honor of 
enclosing. 

In regard to the vessels, I have this day ordered that the captain of this should take 
possession of them as national property, in which character I think of selling them at 
auction if there be any bidders ; and if there be none, I will arrange to have them taken 
up the river so far as to place them in the greatest possible security in case the enemy 
should again threaten this place, unless the supreme government disposes otherwise. 

Liberty and reform ! 

JUAN J. DE LA GARZA, 

General Commanding. 

FORCES OF TAMATJL1PAS, QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT. 

Report of the mimitions of war taken from the French in the transport Eugenia on the bar of Tarn- 

pico, January 22, 1863. 

16,520 one ounce musket balls. 10 hand grenades, not loaded. 

1 box one-ounce musket balls, spoiled. 78 little sacks for 30-pouuders. 

504 musket caps. 207 do. do. 12-pounders. 

538 caps for cannons. 200 do. do. 4 -pounders. 

30 balls for rifled cannon, Armstrong 40 do. do. 22-poundeis. 

30-pouuders. 60 fuzes for shells for 4-pounders. 

90 bombshells with 12 charges, for 1 box with mixed, for shells. 

same. 200 fulminating matches. 
198 bombshells, with four charges, for 10 squibs. 

same. 10 rockets. 

24 rounds of grape and canister, with 1 fire chemise. 

4 charges. 720 pistol cartridges a la Fosset 
40 hand grenades, loaded. 1 copper fuzoe lor vessels, blinded. 



Tampico, January 27, 1863. 



J LAN TAITION. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



99 



Report of the cargo taken from the enemy, contained in the brigantine Indus . 

4 boxes cheese. 
15 empty barrels. 
32 empty quarter casks. 
47 barrels salt meat. 
26 barrels of flour. 
65 boxes with jars of preserved meat. 

4 boxes containing medicines. 
69 large jars preserved meat. 

23 sacks white beans. 

6 sacks maize. 
15 sacks salt. 
45 casks biscuit. 

5 boxes tobacco. 
4 empty pipes. 

53 small canisters preserved meat. 

2 sacks peas. 

3 barrels flour. 
9 barrels flour, damaged. 
1 tierce tobacco. 
3 jugs oil. 

1 bag mustard. 

2 barrels salt. 
19 oars. 

1 mast. 

3 barrels maize. 

24 barrels red wine. 

2 boxes peas. 

2 boxes white beans. 

3 boxes biscuits. 

7 casks biscuits. 

6 half-casks biscuits. 
3 barrels boiled meat. 

; 4 empty pots. 
2 bedsteads with pillows. 

Note 1. In addition to the provisions mentioned in this report there were also those 
consumed by the troops, to the number of five hundred men, in three days. 

Note 2. There is no account given of the horses, mules, and wagons taken from the en- 
emy, because the greater part of them strayed away at the last moment, and we suceeeded 
in recovering only three mules and six wagons. 

RAMON BARBERENA, 

Commissary General. 
Tampico, February 5, 1863. 



1 


bundle containing bedding. 


2 


bundles containing crutches. 


1 


cask containing apothecary's bottles 


1 


jug oil. 


6 


uncovered barrels flour. 


1 


bundle stakes. 


3 


gridirons whereon to set caldrons. 


3 


small gridirons for small caldrons. 


1 


barrel containing salt. 


1 


pick-axe. 


1 


hatchet. 


1 


tierce oakum. 


1 


little chest with small drums. 


1 


large barrel containing brandy. 


i 
5 


cask containing liquorice. 


1 


barrel flour uncovered. 


3 


boxes old iron. 


1 


copper vessel. 


1 


copper, caldron. 


7 


large iron plates. 


i 

2 


tierce gum arabic. 


1 


sack with rope's-ends. 


3 


kegs medicine. 


78 


gray coverlets. 


14 


white do. 


397 


blankets. 


350 


sheets. 


154 


pillow cases. 


280 


bolster cases. 


46 


pairs woollen stockings. 


400 


pointed caps. 


100 


aprons. 


290 


Rouen towels. 



A true copy : 



A true copy 



Tampico, February 6, 1863. 

D. BALANDRANO, Secretary. 
Washington, March 31, 1863. 

ROMERO. 



No. 11. 

Federal Army, Division of the South, 

Headquarters, Providencia, January 10, 1863. 
The Minister of War and Marine, Mexico : 

For the information of the chief magistrate of the republic, I have the honor to trans- 
mit to you the enclosed copies, which were sent to me in a private letter under date of 
yesterday, and which I received to-day at 12 o'clock, it not having been possible to trans- 
mit them with the regular weekly report for the reason that that could not be delayed one 
moment. 

By the said copies you will see the course pursued by the general second in command of 
the division, and the demands of the enemy, wherein I have not been able to do less than 
approve the conduct of the former. 



100 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

It is now 11 o'clock p. m., and as yet the courier lias not arrived 'whom I expect to bring 
me an account of the result of the attack of this morniDg, which I will communicate to 
you as soon as I receive it. 

Wherefore I offer to you and to the president the assurance of my distinguished esteem 
and consideration. 

Liberty and reform ! 

J. ALVAREZ. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: ROMERO. 



No. 12. 

[Translation.] 

Naval Division of the Pacific Ocean, Off Acapulco, 

On Board the Pallas, January 8, 1863. 

Sir : Convinced as I am of the great disorder which a declared hostility between the 
French division and the port of Acapulco (the place lacking, as the governor has informed 
me, sufficient means to reply to the fire of the division) would cause in the commercial 
relations, I am disposed to enter into an arrangement on the following conditions : 

General Alvarez shall publicly contradict the false article published in the journal El 
Chalaco, No. 633, under the date of the 3d of November last, in the name of General 
Ghilardi. 

The admiral will then be disposed to celebrate with the general commander of the state a 
convention of neutrality, wherein it will be stipulated that the French ships-of-war shall 
have all the flesirable facilities to provide themselves with provisions, water, and coal, 
whenever they shall present themselves at Acapulco. 

On their part, the ships of the French division of the Pacific ocean will abstain from all 
acts of hostility against the port of Acapulco. 

On accepting these conditions I will withdraw the demand which I had made to the 
governor for the dismantlement of the batteries. 

Please accept, sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. 

BOUET, 
The Admiral Commander-in-Chief. 

The Agent of the Compang of American Mail Steamers. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: ROMERO. 



No. 13. 
Copy of the rough draught which was given in. 

Yorit Excellency : I believe that the intentions of my admiral, communicated to your 
excellency, were properly interpreted. 

Permit me to repeat to you, in order to avoid all misunderstanding, 1st. The admiral 
iequests that the wicked passion which inspired the article against the French corvette 
La Bayonnaise, published in the journal known as El Chalaco, under date of the 3d of 
November, a wicked passion hostile in every respect and false in its particular statements, 
be now acknowledged, inasmuch as General Ghilardi has been removed. 

The acts of the late governor, so justly disapproved by your excellency in the name of 
those sentiments of dignity which, alike in times of war as in times of peace, impose ou 
eveiy one a respect for truth, give me the assurance that you will be the first, as governor, 
to have this article contradicted for the good of the .Mexican government itself, which 
cannot authorize the publication of an injury directed against an absent enemy. 

The question as to stores and provisions you are already acquainted with, and I need 
not return to its consideration ; it was properly interpreted, and inspired by an idea of 
humanity and of conciliation, an idea which prevails among all nations. 

1 have confidence in your excellency's judgment, and I await the reply, although I have 
not teceived this order from my admiral. 

The removal of Senor Ghilardi is a proof of the justice of his honorable father, whose 
high and chivalrous chara ter cannot receive as the feeling of his country the article of 
the Chalaco in reference to the Bayonnaise. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 101 

No. 14. 

Acapulco, January 9, 1863. 

Esteemed Sir : I have taken into consideration the communication addressed to you by 
the admiral of the French squadron, informing you that, being desirous to avoid the in- 
conveniences which the company which you represent might suffer in case of fire being 
opened between the naval division under his command and this place, he feels disposed to 
enter into an agreement with me under the conditions which he himself therein indicates, 
and I proceed to apprise you of my ideas on the subject. 

I shall begin by setting down the fact that he has fallen into a mistake in asserting that 
the undersigned has confessed that he has not sufficient means to withstand the fire of his 
naval force, as this could not have been inferred either from the official communication 
which I addressed yesterday to the admiral in reply to his, or much less from the private 
conference which I had with Captain Le Bris, the bearer of the admiral's letter. 

It is true that to the cordial protestations of that officer I replied with the politeness 
becoming a gentleman, deploring the unavoidable necessity which I was under of treating 
as enemies the sons of a nation for which I had ever the liveliest sympathies ; but there 
was nothing beyond this, and to this act no other character can be given than that of mere 
urbanity. 

As far as regards the proposition prior to the agreement which is pretended, an engage- 
ment to contradict the assertions of Senor Ghilardi, in reference to the corvette La Bayon- 
naise, published in the columns of the Chalaco newspaper, No. 633, of the 3d of November 
last, I can do absolutely nothing in the matter, because the fact of the incorrectness of the 
statements in that article would assuredly impose a responsibility only on its author, the 
aforesaid Seiior Ghilardi, who is now removed from the command and beyond the limits of 
this state. 

In regard to the intimations in reference to the points that should be embraced in the 
agreement, in order to express my opinion on the subject, I conceive it to be an indispen- 
sable formality that direct communication should be made with me, in order to avoid in 
the future all sinister interpretation that might be made to the dishonor of the good name 
of my country. 

For the rest, you will permit me to tell you that I cannot conceive how neutrality can 
be maintained between those who belong to the armed force of two nations which are 
actually at war, and I would desire to have an explanation of this point in order to enable 
me to form a less incorrect judgment. 

This same thing you can make known to the French admiral, who has initiated this 
negotiation. 

I reiterate to you the assurance of the sincere esteem with which I sign myself 
Your most affectionate friend, 

D. ALVAREZ. 

Mr. B. S. Van Brunt. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy: ROMERO. 



No. 15. 

[Translation.] 



Excellency : The admiral has ordered me to inform your excellency that he presents 
himself before Acapulco without hostile intentions. 

He appeals first to your military honor, begging you to examine the gravity of the 
article on the French corvette La Bayonnaise. 

He demands the public retraction of an injury which could not have been made under 
the government of your excellency, and which you disapprove as much as the under- 
signed. This single fact sufficiently deserves the dismissal of M Ghilardi. 

The admiral will enter with his squadron the bay of Acapulco without hostile inten- 
tions, which I have the honor to repeat to you, and will provide himself with provisions, 
water, and coal with all security. He will be very sorry to meet with hostility in view of 
his peaceful intentions, which I have been commissioned to communicate to you. The ad- 
miral confides fully in your excellency's word, and doubts not that all the French vessels 
which may present themselves in this port will be received with equal kindness. 
I have the honor to be, with respect, your excellency's devoted servant, 

E. LE BRIS. 

His Excellency the General Commander-in-Chief, Acapulco. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy: ROMERO. 



102 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 16. 

Federal Army, Division of the South, 

Acapulco, January 9, 1863. 
To Captain Le Bri9, Present : 

The communication, without date, which I have just received from you, leaves me im- 
pressed with the fact that the admiral of the French naval forces commissions you to in- 
form me that he presents himself before this port without any hostile intentions. 

In regard to the affair concerning the corvette La Bayonnaise, as the communication 
published in the Chalaco is not a work proceeding from the undersigned, but from Sefior 
Ghilardi, to him it belongs to give explanations in reference to the matter. As to the 
present writer, it should be remarked that he is not accustomed to make such exaggerated 
statements, but always to speak the truth, and consequently that he will never approve of 
anything not in accordance with the principle of truth. 

In regard to entrance into the bay, and concession of provision, water, and coal, it not 
being within the scope of the authority of the undersigned to grant them, he refers to 
what he has manifested to the admiral in his communication of yesterday, and considers 
himself excused from any further statement, so as to avoid repeating what has been 
already said once for all. 

I renew to you the assurance of my consideration and special esteem. 

Liberty and reform ! 

D. ALVAREZ. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 17. 

Federal Armt, Division of the South, 

Headquarters, Providencia, January 11, 1863. 
The Minister of War and Marine, Mexico ; 

It is three o'clock in the morning, and I have just received from the port of Acapulco, 
and from the officer intrusted with its defence, the following despatch, written yesterday, 
at 12J o'clock p. m. : 

"Commander-in-Chief: At three-quarters past eight o'clock this morning fire was 
opened between the French squadron and the force under my command. The following 
circumstances have been remarked: 

"At thirty-five minutes past nine o'clock all the pieces in Fort Guerrero were dis- 
mounted and rendered useless, and consequently the fire of the fort was discontinued. 

"At forty-five minutes past nine o'clock the same happened with Fort Iturbide. Fort 
Galeana met with the like result at ten o'clock. 

"The enemy has stationed himself beyond the range of Forts Hidalgo and Morelos, 
from which we have as yet received no news on account of the distance. 

"The national flag is yet waving on Fort Alvarez 

"The enemy is furiously bombarding this port, but the troops and the people shout 
enthusiastically for the supreme government, and defend with honor the good name of 
their country. 

"We have several killed and wounded. When I receive all the details and terminate 
the duties of the day, I will give the particulars. 

" The firing is being continued with vigor up to this moment." 

I have the honor to transmit this despatch to you for your information, and that of the 
President of the republic, with the assurance of keeping you posted in all that occurs to 
the final close of the action. 

Wherewith I assure you of my esteem and consideration. 

Liberty and reform ! 

J. ALVAREZ, 

At 5 a. m. General Commanding. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 103 



No. 18. 

Federal Army, Division of the South, 

Headquarters, Providencia, January 12, 1863. 
The Minister of War : 

Under date of yesterday I received the following report from the officer second in command 
of the division : 

" General : Subsequently to what I reported to you in my communication of yesterday 
at 12J o'clock p. m. , from that hour until 5 o'clock in the evening, the hostile squadron 
continued firing upon Fort Alvarez very slowly ; but the latter has not answered, as the 
squadron is beyond the range of its guns. 

" The fire of our artillery is entirely useless, because to the circumstance of bad mount- 
ings is added that of not being able to throw shot even to half the distance of the enemy, 
whilst the guns of the latter have even a longer range than that distance, as they have 
pieces of 64 and 80 pounds calibre, and all rifled. 

'< At six o'clock this morning the enemy recommenced their fire upon Fort Alvarez, and 
continue up to the present moment, 11 o'clock a. m. Several buildings in the city were 
thrown down during the bombardment of yesterday, which lasted for more than two 
hours. The barbarity of the enemy was remarkable, as they knew that there was not a 
single Mexican in it, and consequently their hostility was directed against the prosperity 
of the city, and their purpose was to destroy existing interests. Among the houses set on 
fire was that belonging to Spanish subjects, known under the style of Narvarte and Com- 
pany, with the remarkable circumstance that the flag-staff, the flag having been raised 
upon it, x was struck and cut in two, as I have been informed. It appears that about two 
hundred boxes of dry-goods were burnt in it, as well as some other effects. 

"I cannot yet give you the particulars as to the state of affairs in the forts and other 
points held by the division, because I have all the troops under arms, surrounding the 
port, in order to prevent the disembarcation of the enemy, and especially to keep them 
from supplying themselves with water, as all provisions have been withdrawn beyond their 
reach. ' ' 

This communication I received at night, about 12 o'clock, and, according to my promise 
to you, I transmit it, for the information of the President of the republic. 

I, should not permit myself to pass over in silence the barbarity which the enemy is ex- 
ercising against a town wherein there is nothing but the mere houses, as is shown by the 
preceding communication ; a circumstance which will make known to all the world what is 
to be expected from our invaders, who proclaim that they come to civilize us. 

Wherefore I offer you the assurance of my respect and consideration. 

Liberty and reform ! 

J. ALVAEEZ. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : ROMERO. 



No. 19. 

[Translation.] 



FEDERAL ARMY, DIVISION OF THE SOUTH, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF — CITIZEN MINISTER of war. 

Citizen Minister of War and Marine, Mexico: 

It is half past 9 o'clock in the morning, and I have just received the following despatch : 

Federal Army, Division of the South, 

Acapulco, January 12, 1863 — 7 o'clock p. m. 

Second in command : Long live the republic ! Long live the constitutional government ! 

Citizen General-in-Chief : At six o'clock this morning firing commenced between the 
French squadron and our batteries of Fort Alvarez. Its greatest activity was from one to 
five o'clock this afternoon, and twenty minutes after the former retired from the harbor, 
driven off by cannon, even though these were not effective, on account of the short range 
of the pieces. The enemy's fire riddled, with its projectiles, our beautiful tri-colored flag, 
leaving it in tatters, but it waved proudly upon its staff to the last. 

With opportunity I will communicate to you the events that happened during the three 
days' combat against the invaders, it being sufficient now for me to assure you that all the 



104 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

generals, chiefs, officers, and troops of the division under my command have discharged 
their duties with the greatest gallantry, courage, and intrepidity. 

God save the republic ! and that the heroic defence of the port of Acapulco may be the 
dawn that precedes the more splendid triumph of our armies in Puebla de Zaragoza. T 
congratulate you most cordially upon so happy a result, and at the same time reiterate my 
respect and subordination. 

Liberty and reform ! 

D. ALVAREZ. 

Citizen general, well deserving of the country, 
Juan Alvarez, 

Chief of this Division, La Providencia. 

With the greatest satisfaction I transmit it to you, for your information and that of the 

izen President of the republic, congratulating him at the same time upon the triumph 

tained with so much heroism in the fortifications of Acapulco, where, notwithstanding 

■ scarcity from which we suffer, the preparations for the defence will be continued*, as 

as possible to prepare for the return of the enemy's squadron, which will happen, prob- 

-, although it had not sufficient valor to take by main force Fort Alvarez, the only one 

maintained itself until the last instant. In conclusion, I inform you that the enemy's 

;ls did not leave in so good a condition, because they suffered some damage ; and I 

...uerstand that they have retired to repair the damages they may have sustained, and for 

the purpose, also, of taking in water at some point of the coast, because in Acapulco they 

took nothing they need. 

As soon as I receive a circumstantial report I will communicate it to you. In the interim, 
it is pleasing to repeat to you my esteem and respectful consideration. 
Liberty and reform ! 

La Providencia, January 13, 1863. 

JUAN ALVAREZ. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : ROMERO. 



No. 20. 
ARMY of the east. 

Headquarters Zaragoza, December 31, 1862. 
The Minister of War, Mexico : 

The military commander of Tehuacan, under date of the 19th, just past, transmits to 
me the following report : 

" I have the honor to inform you that the hostile force which occupied this place, com- 
posed of the 95th of the line, one hundred and sixty-five chasseurs a" Afrique, ninety-four 
traitors, under the command of the infamous Trujeque, six 8-pounder rifled cannons with 
their proper complement of artillerists, six large wagons and twelve small ones, formed a 
total fifteen hundred strong. 

" The population has been subjected to serious outrages. The commercial establishments 
of the citizens, Jose" Vincente Esperon, Nicolas Herrera, Severiano Benites, and Dona Josefa 
Espinosa, were pillaged by some soldiers of the 95th of the line, as also the chandlery of 
Diego Gonzales by the French advance, that honorable citizen being thereby left in utter 
misery. 

" Several families were maltreated, among them that of Antenogenes Gonzales, whose 
wife, after enduring the blows inflicted upou her by a French captain, they wished to cany 
off to prison, because her husband was in the ranks of the Riva Palacio division. 

" I would weary you if I proposed to myself to narrate, one by one, the robberies and 
outrages committed by the French army during the few days that it remained in this city ; 
be it sufficient to state that the greater part of the houses, even those of the very poorest 
people, were robbed of their hogs, hens, ami fowl of all kinds that the soldiers could lay 
hands on, all the lumber that was iii the public square, and the wooden buildings in the 
suburbs were burned and destroyed. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 105 

"They committed various rapes, the most notable one being that which was perpetrated 
in the public square, where a multitude of them surrounded their victim and gave free 
scope to their licentious passion. 

" From the minute investigation ordered to be instituted by this military department in 
order to discover who had afforded supplies to the invader, it is established that the Spanish 
subject, Augustin Allende, sold them more than a hundred loads of flour, abstracted from 
the Amarilla house, and that he left for Orizaba in company with the invaders. 

"The traitors, Manuel Loaiza, Mariano Loaiza, Joaquin Arroniz, sr., Joaquin Arroniz, jr., 
likewise went off with the enemy, as also the French subject, Eugene Lafebfetre, who had 
previously given them information of the state of our army and the measures which were 
being adopted, in this manner showing his appreciation for the hospitality and considera- 
tion which had been exhibited towards him." 

I have the honor of transmitting this despatch to you for your better information. 

Liberty and reform ! 

JESUS G. ORTEGA. 

Washington, March 31, 1863, 
A true copy : RQxMERQ. 



No. 21. 
[Translation,] 
Private correspondence of General Antonio Carvajal. 

San Nicolas, January 17, 1863. 

My Esteemed Friend and Companion : By one of the persons who have come from Acat- 
zingo I have learned the following news : 

The French have arrested four individuals, who are Don Vicente Vioanco, Don Diego 
Miron, Don N. Corres, and another whose name I do not know, all of Quecholac. They 
have sent three individuals in carts, shut up in boxes with only a hole through which their 
faces could be seen and they give them to eat. 

Before this, they put Don Diego Miron in a barrel of water up to his neck, with large 
balls in his hands, without more fault than private disputes for not consenting to grave 
faults with his family. Already the court inquisition begins anew, and it is said that they 
will place it in Mexico as soon as the capital is taken. 

As ever, your affectionate friend and obedient servant, 

ANTONIO CARVAJAL. 
General Jesus Gonzales Ortega. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy : ROMERO. 



No. 22. 

[Translation.] 



Vera Cruz, January 20. 

Sub-Prefecture of the District of Vera Cruz : The prefect of the district, in a commu- 
nication of yesterday, says to the subscriber as follows : 

This prefecture has to-day received the following communication, which, being translated, 
says: Mr\ Prefect: I have the honor to transmit you a circular from the commander-in. 
chief, asking you to have the kindness to have it translated into Spanish, and to take the 
necessary steps that may conduce to giving it the greatest possible publicity. 

Circular. — In conformity with the French code of military law, every individual accused 
as the author or accomplice of treason, spying, tampering with the army, revolt, insubor- 
dination, rebellion, violence against a French soldier, taking away, stealing or hiding 
military effects, money, or anything that belongs either to the state or to the army — or, in 
a word, of any crime or misdemeanor that affects the safety of the army, will be made to 
appear before a French court-martial, of whatever nation he may be. I beg of you to 
cause these regulations to come to the knowledge of the inhabitants. Headquarters at 
Orizaba, January 6, 1863. Forey, Commander-in-Chief. 

Mr . Prefect, please to accept the expression of my highest consideration. 

J. DURAND ST. ARNAUD. 



106 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Vera Cruz, January 17, 1863. 
Mr. Prefect of the District of Vera Cruz : I communicate the present to your honor for 
your information, and to the end that it may be published in the official paper, making it 
known to the authorities of the towns that are under your jurisdiction. The which is now 
published for the knowledge of the inhabitants of the district. 

D. BERREAN. 

A MEXICAN EXECUTION. 

Vera Cruz, Saturday, January 24, 1863. 
In compliance with the orders of his excellency the commander-in-chief of the French 
army, on the 15th instant, there was put in force in the fortress of TJlloa the sentence of 
death by the court-martial against Bartolo Banderas and Justo Pasos, accused of poisoning 
French soldiers. The two culprits, after having received spiritual aid, were shot in the 
presence of the Mexican prisoners in the fortress, all the formalities prescribed by the 
French code of military law being carried out. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy. EOMERO. 



No. 23. 

Perote, January 4, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowlege the receipt of your communication of yesterday, 
begging you to excuse me if I cannot present myself before the court-martial to give you 
the information that you ask about the so-called Florian Bernardi, who is to be tried to-day 
by the court-martial. Official business may require my departure from here every moment. 
I will, however, give you all the information I can about the above-named individual. 

On the 23d I arrived at Nopalucan, in company with Mr. W. Corwin, secretary of the 
American legation, and of Mr. Cajat, consular agent of the United States in Puebla. 
From there the secretary of legation and myself addressed a communication to the general 
commanding the first division, asking him to place an escort at our disposition to obtain 
the necessary security in order to reach the line occupied by the French army. We arrived 
at Tepeyahualco, accompanied by an escort of the Mexican army. Until the answer of the 
general commanding the first division came, we remained at Tepeyahualco, without the 
necessary protection to continue our journey, for we had promised General Alvarez not to 
make the escort go, which he had the kindness to give us, beyond the above-named place. 

During this time we saw entering Tepeyahualco the so-called Florian Bernardi, with a 
force of 17 men. Supposing that Florian with his men belonged to the Mexican army, we 
presented him with the order of General Ortega, commander-in-chief of the Mexican troops, 
ordering the commanders of the forces that we might find in the way to furnish us with every 
sort of security, and to furnish us with the means of continuing our journey, and we asked 
him if he would escort us in order to continue our journey. 

Sefior Florian consented immediately to it, when the messenger whom we had sent to 
General Bazaine arrived with a letter from the general in command, informing us that we 
would find a French escort in Tenestepec. 

Sefior Bernardi, on seeing the general's letter, in which he informed us of the place 
where we would find a French escort, observed that it was very probable that the general 
was mistaken in the name of the place, for Tenestepec was not in our way. 

After this we set out, recommending Sefior Florian that he should stop as soon as he per- 
ceived the French troops, or should make use of a white flag to prevent any mistake. 

More than this, Sefior Bernardi thought fit to leave a part of his soldiers in San Antonio, 
not to arrive at the French lines with a force that might occasion a mistake. 

On coming near the place which we believed Tenestepec, we warned Sefior Florian to take 
his white flag and advance alone with one man, to let our object be known. 

From this time we lost sight of Florian, and entered Perote, astonished to find ourselves 
there when we still imagined that we were going to stop in Tenestepec. 

When I saw the French troops, the three men of the escort, who came behind our coach, 
manifested a fear of entering the place. We observed to them that there was greater risk 
in returning, being already in the French lines, and when their commander was in Perote ; 
and we told them that we did not see that there would he the least risk for them, as they 
were with us, for we intended to explain to the commanding general under what conditions 
they had entered the town in our company. 

A guard informed us at the entrance that Sefior Florian had passed. What afterwards 
occurred will be probably known to you, and, for my part, I have nothing more to add 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 107 

but that the secretary of the American legation agrees to the present account, and makes it 
his. Accept, sir, the sincerity of my perfect consideration. 

MAECUS OTTERBOTJRG, 
Consul of the United Slates of America in Mexico. 

Having read the above memorial, made by Mr. Marcus Otterbonrg, consul of the United 
States in Mexico, I declare hereby that I entirely agree in all that he has said, as being a 
true account of the facts that have taken place. 

WM. H. CORWIN, 
Secretary of the Legation of the United Stales in Mexico. 
A. M. F. GARNIER, 
Colonel of the Fifty-first, and President of the Court-martial. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 24. 
[Translation.] 

ARMY OF THE EAST, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

Puebla de Zaragoza, February 1, 1863. 

The citizen minister of war writes to me under yesterday's date as follows: 

By the declarations of the greater part of the deserters from the invading army it is 
understood that the soldiers who compose it are becoming persuaded that neither our govern- 
ment nor our country is in the state of disorganization which had been described to them ; 
on the contrary, they now comprehend that they are to be tools to establish oppression and 
despotism in a country in which the greatest and best regulated liberty reigns, based on a 
constitution that proclaims the same principles as to individual liberty that these very 
soldiers have formerly defended with their lives in Europe, and that have also been pro- 
claimed by their eminent writers in their works. 

In consequence, the citizen President of the republic desires that by all the means in 
your reach you will let the French soldier know that the government will continue affording 
resources, as it has hitherto done, to all who present themselves, and until they can find 
honest means of supporting themselves in the republic, where all enjoy complete liberty, 
where principally the industrious and saving foreigner finds innumerable opportunities of 
acquiring, as is proved by a number of examples, a fortune difficult to make in Europe, and 
where, besides, he is free from military service, and placed under the protection of the 
authorities, who are particularly careful to be just. This government recommends you, 
then, to transmit your orders to the commanding officers of the advanced forces and to the 
civil authorities, so that the French who present themselves, with the intention of leaving 
the invading army, may be well received and provided with everything necessary to continue 
their journey to the capital, where, as before said, the government will afford them resources, 
and attend to them till they find occupation to give them means to subsist and enjoy the 
quiet life of an industrious man. 

And I communicate it to you that, with the above directions, you may attend to the 
deserters from the invading army who present themselves, and also that you may take care 
that the present circular shall get to the knowledge of the said army, so that those who 
fear being badly received by the people and government of Mexico may be convinced of the 
contrary, and decide to abandon a cause that Europe itself has declared dishonorable to 
the French people. 

Liberty and reform ! 

ORTEGA. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



108 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 25. 
[Translation] 

ARMY OF THE EAST, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. 

Citizen Minister of War, Mexico : 

These headquarters gave yesterday a passport for that capital, and provided -with the 
necessary funds to defray his travelling expenses, to the French deserter Eugene Latremolles. 

Liberty and reform ! 

Headquarters at Zaragoza, February 3, 1863. 

ORTEGA. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 

A true copy : ROMERO. 



No. 26. 
[Translation.] 

ARMY OF THE EAST, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. 

Citizen Minister of War, Mexico : 

These headquarters gave yesterday a passport for that capital, and provided with the 
necessary funds to defray their travelling expenses, the deserters from the French army, 
Corporal Alfred Lemaire, and privates Jieng Gautrou, Joseph Coffin, Anatolio Yanseur, 
Edwards Picot, Poullout and Jean B. Guepet, all of them belonging to the regiment of 
zouaves. 

I have the honor to communicate to you the foregoing for your information. 

Liberty and reform ! 

Headquarters at Zaragoza, Februaryl2, 1863. 

J. G. ORTEGA. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: ROMERO. 



No. 27. 
[Translation.] 



Monsieur le President: We would not like to leave your capital without an acknowledg- 
ment of our gratitude for the kind treatment which we have received np to the present 
time from the government you have the honor to represent. 

Since the day we left the invading army, where we were told that all French deserters 
had to suffer the most cruel tortures from the Mexican people, we have seen that it was a 
shameful lie ; for wherever we have passed we have been received with the greatest regard, 
even from the superior officers, who have hastened to aid us, offering us their services, and 
showing that they have for us the sincerest sympathies. 

Receive, Monsieur le President, our heartfelt thanks. 

Done at Mexico, the 14th February, 1863. 

Second Battalion Zouaves: 

COQUERET, ARISTIE, First Sergeant. 

EUGENE, PICARDE, Corporal. 

ANATOLE, VASSEUR, Soldier. 

CAFFIN. JOSEPH, Soldier. 

CARTERON, JEAN, Soldier. 

GAUTRON, PIERRE, Soldier. 
Third Battalion Zouaves : 

PICAT, EDOUARD, Soldier. 

PERILLON, PIERRE, Soldier. 

GUEPEL, JEAN, Soldier 

ALFRED DE CAVAIGNAC, first Sergeant. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 109 

No. 28. 

Army of the Centre, Headq'rs Second Division, 

Mexico, January 9, 1863. 
In accordance with the supreme order of the government, communicated to me by you, 
I have had the French prisoners that were in Santiago to draw up the declaration of which 
I enclose a copy to you; and I have also procured to have their passports given them and 
each one supplied with five dollars, in order that they may be able to return to their ranks. 
I also transmit to you the copy of the receipt which they have given therefor. Their pass- 
ports were issued under date of the 3d of the present month. 
This I lay before you for your information. 
Liberty and reform ! 

ANDRES L. TAP1A, 

Acting Chief of Division. 



Mexican Republic , Army op the Centre, 
Quartermaster's Department, Mexico, December 31, 1862. 

We, the undersigned, soldiers of the French army in this republic, declare that, finding 
ourselves in this capital, in the barracks of the corps of invalides of the army of Mexico, 
in the character of prisoners of war, we have been made to appear to-day before the citizen 
Mr. Augustin Diaz, professor of the military school, who, in the name of the quartermaster 
general of the Mexican army of the centre, after having communicated to us a resolution 
of the supreme government, ordering us to be set at complete liberty, and allowing us to 
return to our own camp — a sum of money necessary for that purpose being tendered us — or 
offering us a permit to live peaceably in this country, choosing any sort of employment 
that might suit us, asked us a declaration of our free will. In consequence, after ma- 
ture reflection, we have resolved to ask the assistance which is offered to us, in order to 
return to our ranks, rendering our thanks, as in duty bound, to the supreme government 
of the country, which has treated us with so much deference. 

P. CLEOH, Corporal. 

J. CLERC. 

S. CHARLES, Soldier of the 90th regiment. 

E. JOUVERT. 

L. ALAIN. ) Not knowing how to write, I have 

S. CHARLES, [signed for them. — A. Couture. 



A true copy: 



ANDRES L. TAPIA. 



The original French is as follows : 

Nous, soussignes, soldats du regiment du corps exp^ditionnaire Francais dans cette re*- 
publique, declarons: que nous trouvant dans cette capitale, dans la caserne du corps des 
Invalides de l'arme'e Mexicaine, en qualite' de prisonniers de guerre, on nous a fait com- 
paraitre aujourd'hui devant le citoyen professeur de l'ecole militaire, M. Augustin Diaz, 
lequel, au nom de M. le general qunrtier-maitre de l'armee Mexicaine du centre, apres nous 
avoir fait savoir la resolution du gouvernement supreme de nous remettre en complete 
libert6, nous permettant de rejoindre notre quartier-g6n6rale en nous remettant la somme 
necessaire a cet effet, ou nous offrant un sauf-conduit, afin de pouvoir vivre pacifiquement 
dans ce pays, choississant le genre d' occupation qui nous conviendrait, nous demande une 
manifestation de notre libre volonte\ En consequence, apres mure reflexion, nous avons 
resolu de demander l'aide que Ton nous offre, afin cle pouvoir rejoindre nos rangs, remer- 
ciant comme nous le devons le gouvernement supreme du pays, qui nous a traits' avec 
tant de d6l6rence. 

P. CLECH, Caporale. 

J. CLERC. 

S. CHARLES, 9Qme regiment. 

E. JOUVERT. 

L, ALAIN. J Ne sachant pas signer, j'ai 



CHARLES, j signe pour eux. — A. Couture. 



110 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mexican Republic, Army of the Centre, 
Quartermaster's Department, Second Division, Mexico, January 3, 1863. 

We have received from the quartermaster general twenty-five dollars for each, one of us 
who hereunto subscribe our names, in order to enable us to return to the army to which 
we belong. 

CLECH. 

CLERC. 

LEMIQUE. j v -.^ 

JOUVERT. [ B y Fabre> 

LECLERC. 

Mexico, January 9, IS 63. 
A true copy: 

ANDRES L. TAPIA, 

Chief of Division. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



No. 29. 
[Translation.] 



National Palace, Mexico, 

February 22, 1863. 

My Dear and Most Esteemed Sir : I have just read in the Monitor Republicano of to- 
day the speech which M. O'Donnell, president of the council of ministers of the Spanish 
government, has made in the discussion which took place with a view to answer the speech 
of the crown, and I have seen with surprise, among several inaccurate assertions which M. 
O'Donnell has made about Mexican affairs, the following expressions : e 8 ° " As for 
myself, Juarez, as a Mexican, has a stain which never can be washed away — that of having 
been willing to sell two provinces of this country to the United States. ° ° ° " This 
accusation, coming from a high functionary of a nation, and while an eminently serious 
and solemn act was taking place, when the statesman must be careful that his words are 
impressed with the seal of truth, of justice, and good faith, is of the utmost importance, 
for one may be led to think that on account of the position which he occupies he is in 
possession of documents which support his assertion — a thing which is not true. M. 
O'Donnell is authorized to publish the proofs he may possess concerning this affair. Mean- 
while my honor compels me to show that M. O'Donnell has made a mistake in the judg- 
ment which he has formed of my official conduct, and you are authorized, Mr. Editor, to 
contradict the imputation which has been made with so much injustice to the first magis- 
trate of the nation. 

I am, Mr. Editor, your humble servant, 

BENITO JUAREZ. 

To the Editor of the Diario Official. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



No. 30. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, January 22, 1863. 

Mr. Minister : I had solicited more than one year ago a temporary leave of absence to 
return to Berlin, and the despatches which I have received by the last packet have brought 
me the intelligence that the government of the King, yielding to my repeated requests, 
has granted me the permission to leave Mexico. 

I should desire to take the road to Tampico ; but if on the 15th proximo the health of 
my nephew, who is now sick, should not permit him to make so long a journey on horse- 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. Ill 

back, I shall leave by carriage directly for Vera Cruz, by whatever road the general-in-chief 
of the army of the east may deem to be the most proper and affording me the greater 
safety. 

Eequesting your excellency to communicate to his excellency the President of the 
republic my intended early departure, I shall hereafter inform your excellency, Mr. 
Minister, of the measures I have adopted for the temporary conduct of the affairs of the 
legation of the King during my absence, and I shall recur to your excellency's affability 
for the issue of the safe-conduct and escorts required. 

Be pleased, Mr. Minister, to accept the assurances of my high consideration. 

E. DE WAGNER. 

His Excellency Don Juan Antonio de la Fuente, 

Minister for Foreign Relations of the Mexican Republic, fyc. , Sfc. , fyc. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

EOMERO. 



No. 31. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, January 30, 1863. 

Mr. Minister : I have communicated to the President the note which your excellency 
did me the honor to address to me on the 22d instant, limited to the permission which his 
Majesty the King of Prussia has been pleased to grant you to withdraw temporarily to 
Berlin. . 

In relation to what your excellency says to me in reference to your journey by way of 
Tampico, or by the route of Vera Cruz, your excellency will be free to take that which is 
most convenient to you. 

I hope to receive the favor of the communication which your excellency proposes to 
address to me upon several points. I cannot foresee that they will involve the slightest 
difficulty. 

Tour excellency will accept the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTE. 

His Excellency Senor Baron E. de Wagner, 

Minister resident of his Majesty the King of Prussia. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

EOMERO. 



No. 32. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, February 9, 1863. 

Mr. Minister: Thanking your excellency for the communication which you have been 
pleased to address me under date of the 30th of the past month, I have the honor to in- 
form you that I propose to take my departure for Berlin on the 18th of this month at four 
o'clock a. m. 

The consul of the King, Mr. Benecke, will be left, during my absence, in charge of the 
current affairs relating to the protection of the interests of the Prussian subjects. I hope 
that his intervention, that of the other German consuls, as also that of Mr. Ballerteros, the 
consul general of Spain, and that of the consul of Belgium, Mr. Grave, will be sufficient to 
guarantee the interests of their countrymen, which had been, up to this period, confided 
to the protection of the Prussian legation However, in the exceptional cases which may 
present themselves, I have recommended these consuls and their countrymen, as also the 
French residents, to the kind protection of the legation of the United States of North 
America. I hope that this measure will be only a matter of formality, and that the direct 
protection of your excellency will be assured to the said foreigners who may appeal to the 



112 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

kindness of your department. I intend to make the trip hence to Vera Cruz in the dili- 
gence ; but if the military operations should require it, I shall he enabled to go directly 
from San Martin to Acalcingo, leaving Puebla aside. On the 15th, at mid-day, a cart con- 
taining my equipage will leave with the escort which your excellency may be pleased to 
cause it to be accompanied. 

J take the liberty to request your excellency to be pleased to order the issue of the pass- 
ports and safe-conduct for myself and my nephew, Charles Wagner, the secretary attached 
to this legation, and also for our three servants. I therefore request your excellency to 
give the necessary orders with respect to the escorts which are to accompany us, and I 
would be obliged to your excellency to let me know who is the military officer in charge 
of them, that I may have a direct understanding with him. I will also thank your ex- 
cellency to apprise the general-in-chief of the army of the east of my early departure, and 
to transmit to his excellency the open letter herewith enclosed, addressed to the French 
general commanding on the Orizaba road, in order that he may transmit it to the latter 
through a flag of truce, and that he may take the necessary measures with respect to my 
passage through the advanced lines. 

If by the 18th of this month there should occur any serious battle which may prevent 
my passage, I will thank your excellency to communicate it to me. 

Be pleased, Mr. Minister, to accept the assurances of my high consideration. 

E. DE WAGNER. 

His Excellency Sehor Don Juan Antonio de la Fuente, 

Minister of Foreign Relations of the Mexican Republic, Sip. , Sfc. , Sfc. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



No. 33. 
[Translation ] 

National Palace, Mexico, February 12, 1863. 

Mr. Minister: I have received the communication which your excellency did me the 
honor to address me on the 9th instant, in reference to your departure, passports, neces- 
sary safe- conducts, and the conduct of various matters during your absence. 

Agreeably to what I have on other occasions had the pleasure to say to your excellency, 
you can make your trip hence to Vera Cruz ; and in compliance with your request upon 
that subject now made, the proper instructions will be issued in order that General Cornon- 
fort, now stationed at San Martin, shall inform your excellency whether the military ope- 
rations do not permit your excellency to pass through Puebla. The cart which your excellency 
sends with your equipage will be properly escorted. With respect to the passports and 
safe-conducts, your excellency will receive, enclosed in this communication, those which 
you were pleased to ask of me. 

The war department will issue the orders concerning the escorts which are to accompany 
your excellency on your trip, and you will receive timely notice of the military officer or 
officers who will be charged with this duty. The letter which your excellency transmitted 
to me for that purpose will be sent to-day to the general-in-chief of the army ot the east, 
that he may cause it to reach the French general in command of the forces stationed on 
the Orizaba road. If by the day on which your excellency intends to set out upon your 
journey any battle or other occurrence should take place to prevent your excellency's pas- 
sage, I shall consider myself bound to make it known to you. 

In relation to the other points to which your excellency refers. I must say to you that 
the Mexican government at once admits the interposition of Mr. Beneeke, the consul of 
his Majesty, in matters relating to the protection of Prussian subjects and their property ; 
and that agreeably to our laws, consul's geueral may, in the absence of the minister of 
their nation, hold correspondence with the government of the republic respecting the pro- 
tection of his countrymen. Unfortunately, the commission which your excellency says you 
have confeired upon the legation of the United States, to protect in extraordinary cases 
the Prussian subjects, the Germans, Spaniards, Belgians, and their respective consuls, as 
well as the Frenchmen residing in this country, is not so simple a matter. That your ex- 
cellency should recommend the protection of your countrymen to the benevoleuce of 
auother legation would be a thing perfectly coufoimable to the usages received eveiy- 
where ; but to make of that protection the object of two different commissions, committed 
to sundry functionaries, is an expedient entirely new, and which would be fruitlul of con- 
flicts and complications of every nature. The other similar commissions conferred by your 






MEXICAN AFFAIES. 113 

excellency, have, besides the obstacle referred to, that which emanates from not possessing 
any data whatsoever from which it might be inferred that the governments which had 
confided them to the legation of Prussia gave it also the power to transfer them. With 
regard to the French subjects, there exists also against this sub-delegation the circum- 
stances of the state of war, agreeably to the law of nations. 

For these reasons I hope your excellency will be pleased to modify in this sense what 
you have been pleased to state with respect to the protection of the Prussian and other 
subjects to whom your legation has extended it. 

Your excellency will accept the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTE. 
His Excellency the Baron E. de Wagner, 

Minister Resident of his Majesty the King of Prussia. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 



No. 34. 

[Translation.] 



Mexico, February 17, 1863. 

Mr. Minister: The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United 
States of America having refused to give his protection to the Prussian, French, German, 
and Spanish subjects, who up to this time have been confided to the legation of Prussia, 
unless he receives a special order from his government, upon my leaving Mexico, I place 
them under the safeguard of the diplomatic corps, and of each one of its members par- 
ticularly. At the same time, and above all, I confide them to the honor and loyalty of 
the Mexican people. 

Accept, Mr. Minister, the assurances of my high consideration. 

E. DE WAGNER. 

His Excellency Sefior J. A. de la Ftjente, 

Minister of State and for Foreign Relations of the Mexican Republic, 8fc. , fyc. , &fc. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

ROMERO. 



No. 35. 

[Translation.] 

National Palace, Mexico, February 24, 1863. 

Mr. Minister: The Baron E. de Wagner, minister resident of his Majesty the King of 
Prussia, upon leaving this capital, made known to the government of the confederation 
that he had intrusted to certain consular agents the protection of his countrymen, and of 
other foreigners, to whom he had extended it through the special commission of their 
respective governments, adding that in extraordinary cases he had placed both the sub- 
jects and the consuls referred to under the protection of the legation which you represent. 

I request your excellency to read in the annexed document, No. 1, the pretension of 
Mr. Wagner upon this business ; and in No. 2 the reasons for which the government of 
the republic could not accept a measure as inexpedient as it is dangerous. Mr. Wagner 
made no reply to these reasons, nor did he support his fixed determination. But, on the 
second day after his departure, there was received at the department the note transmitted 
as document No. 3, a note in which Mr. Wagner, manifesting in a high degree his con- 
tempt lor rules, usages, and consequences, abandons the idea of all special protection, in 
order to place under the safeguard of the diplomatic corps and of the Mexican people the 
foreigners who were under the protection of the legation of Prussia. 

It is doubtless unnecessary to refute the improper commission which that honorable 
minister had at first confided to your excellency the moment that commission was not 
accepted by your excellency, nor retained either by the agent who was to have conferred 
it upon you ; and though, in fact, he may have transferred it to the diplomatic corps, I 
cannot for a moment fear that it will meet with a better result, being, as in truth it is, 
improper, offensive to the government of Mexico, and in every point of view impracticable. 
I entertain a sincere and well-founded hope that your excellency will not lend your 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 8 



114 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

respectable countenance to authorize measures of this nature. But my duty and the 
orders of the President also compel me to declare that, in reference to the protection of 
the Prussians and of the other foreigners to whom his excellency the Baron de Wagner 
refers in his communications referred to, the government of the republic will invariably 
observe what I had the honor to state to the said minister himself in the official letter 
which I addressed him on the 12th of the present month. Until these matters are other- 
wise arranged, with the approbation of the governments which are at peace with the 
republic, the protection of which I speak has in its favor the spirit of the federal govern- 
ment, and means adequate to render it effective, agreeably to international laws and to our 
own laws. 

By confiding the foreigners, in the first place, to the loyalty and honor of the people of 
Mexico, Mr. Wagner renders to this nation the justice which he had so often denied to it ; 
but Mexico does not need this testimony, nor can it accept it when it is presented insult- 
ingly to the government which it has chosen as the depository of its confidence and of its 
power, because this goverment, which it is affected to forget, is the true representative of 
the nation in its foreign relations; because the appeal that a foreign minister should 
make to the people, and not to the government to which he should be accredited, would 
be held, with good reason, as a rude violation of the law of nations ; and, finally, because 
this omission in the present case suggests the insulting presumption that the federal 
government does not attend to the protection of the foreigners, while, on the contrary, 
everybody knows otherwise, including Mr. Wagner himself, who, in his note of the 9 th 
February, after stating what he had determined to do to insure the protection of the 
Prussian subjects and other foreigners, wrote me in the following words : 

" I flatter myself with the hope that this measure shall be nothing more than a mere 
formality, and that the foreigners who may recur to the kindness of your department Will 
be sure to receive the direct protection of your excellency." 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to your excellency the assurances of my 
very distinguished consideration. 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTE. 
His Excellency Sefior Thomas Corwin, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 

of the United States of America. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy: 

EOMEEO. 



No. 36. 

[Translation ] 

Orizaba, February 15, 1S63. 

Mexicans : After the long sojourn which the corps of expedition under my command 
has had to make in its camp, it is about to leave and march for Mexico. 

Although its sojourn has been long, and although it has had the appearance of repose, 
it has not been time lost. It must have made you reflect, I doubt not, upon the false- 
hoods of those who have an interest in pointing us out as your enemies, and to whom the 
valiant soldiers that I command have given a complete denial by the order and discipline 
which have not failed to reign in their ranks. 

If we are your enemies, we Frenchmen who protect your persons, your families, your 
property, then what must be those Mexicans, your fellow-countrymen, who govern you 
by terror, who strip you of your property ; who, after ruining private individuals by un- 
exampled exactions, ruin likewise the public property, for no other cud than that of pre- 
serving a power of which they make so deplorable a use. 

Yes, Mexicans, you must have discovered in our actions the sincerity and loyalty of our 
words, when, in the name of the Emperor, I declared to you solemnly, what I again 
repeat to you to-day, namely, that the soldiers of France have not come here to impose 
upon you a government ; that they have no other mission, be it well understood, after 
they have dragged by force from him who pretends to be the expression of the national 
will, the just reparation of inn wrongs, which we have not beeu able to obtain by nego- 
tiations; they have no other mission but that of consulting the national wish as to the 
form of government that it desires, and as to the election of the men who appear to it 
most worthy to make certain good order and liberty at home, its dignity and independence 
abroad. 

Wlun this task has beeu accomplished, there will remain to the French army the obliga- 
tion to aid the government chosen by you to march resolutely in the way of progress, so 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 115 

that, in spite of those who despise Mexico, you may succeed in forming a nation which 
shall have nothing to envy in others. 

Then those of us who have not contributed with their lives to the accomplishment of 
so noble an enterprise, will re-embark in the ships of France and return to their country, 
happy and proud if the great duty which they have fulfilled has had for result the regene- 
ration of your country. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, Senator, Commander-in-Chief of the 

Expeditionary Mexican Army. 



No. 37. 
[Translation.] 



Orizaba, February 16, 1863. 

Inhabitants of Orizaba: Within a few days I shall leave this city to undertake military 
operations, the preparations for which, intended to secure success, have detained me here 
so long a time ; but I do not desire to leave without addressing you a few words, which I 
trust you will comprehend, because they are from my heart. In the first place, I thauk 
you for the reception which the expeditionary corps has met with in your city during a 
residence of nine months, during which time order has never ceased to reign there, and 
our soldiers have enjoyed the same security as in their own country. If this be not 
owing to your sympathy, (and I would esteem myself happy if it were so,) it is due, at 
least, to a good disposition, which we should always thank you for. I do not believe 
myself laboring under a delusion when I think that the appearance and behavior of our 
soldiers, who in all parts of the world have been loved and esteemed even by their 
enemies, must have produced the same effect upon you, who have been witnesses of their 
order, their discipline, and the sweetness of their manners ; nor is it possible that your 
fellow-countrymen who have seen them at other points of the country can have faded to 
recognize them as the sons of La Belle France, which marches in the van of civilization. 
Therefore I cherish the hope that you will have understood the intentions of the Em- 
peror, whose views in sending us to Mexico have been no other, believe me, than obtain- 
ing by arms the just reparation of insults you are aware of, and which negotiation could 
not arrange ; and then to reconcile your country with Europe, particularly with France, 
your ancient sympathies for which never would have ceased had it not been for the con- 
duct of your present government. In regard to myself, if I ask Heaven to bless our 
arms, it is not so much for the sake of a vain ambition of personal glory as for the 
prosperity of your beautiful country, to which we have come to bring, at the cost of our 
blood, those two precious boons, without which society cannot exist — liberty and order. 
Farewell, then, inhabitants of Orizaba, or rather until next time, because I hope we shall 
return to see you. God alone knows the future ; but be what may reserved for me, I shall 
never forget the hospitality we have received here, and shall preserve, throughout my 
life, the most delightful recollections of your city. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, Senator, and Commander-in-Chief of the 

Expeditionary Corps in Mexico. 



No. 38. 

LETTERS OF JECKER. 

Correspondence intercepted by the army of the east, and which is published with the knowledge of the 
department of state of the Mexican republic. 

Paris, October 30, 1862. 
My Dear Javier : I have received your letters dated 15th of September, full of interest 
upon general affairs, but with gloomy estimate as regards the present and future position 
of the house. I have written to uncle a long letter, but, this time, I have sent it through 
the house of Findley & Hodgson, on account of the gravity and importance of its contents. 
I begged uncle to communicate it to you, to keep you informed of everything, and it will 
be a great satisfaction to me to know that you judge and appreciate my labors. It will be 
until to-morrow when I shall mail this letter ; I am to have at half-past 1 1 an interview 



116 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

with No. 2 8 , (consult uncle's letter,) under the auspicies of No. 3 f. Should anything of 
importance occur I shall write to you the substance of it on a separate leaf, that you will 
communicate to uncle. You will see by my letter to uncle that the position presents itself 
admirably here, and that all that father and I have attempted has turned out well. This 
morning even I received very good news. No. 3 has told me that sometime since, when 
M. Drouyn de l'Huys was only a private individual, this personage, whose opposition has 
acquired, by his new position of minister of foreign affairs, so great importance for us, will 
have asked you (your cipher) through mere curiosity, what was the business of the bonds. 
You have instructed him completely upon this point, and have persuaded him of the 
justice of our reclamations ; it is, notwithstanding, surprising that he has not spoken to 
me of this when knowing that the new minister was his intimate friend. I have asked 
him what was his opinion (the minister's) about the bonds. You see by my letter to uncle 
that my departure for Mexico was almost at hand some time since. No. 3 has not great con- 
fidence in the new personage whose character I describe. I shall be more or less decided 
after my conversation to-morrow with No 2, because No. 3 has told me that it concerned 
him to know if it was certain that I would place myself completely at his disposition for 
what he might judge opportune to do. I have now No. 3 in such a manner that he has in 
me — in my ability! in my gravity, above all, eh! — a confidence that I can qualify as 
exaggerated. If I see utility for the house in my departure, with sufficient influence to 
serve it well, I will depart notwithstanding the repugnance of papa and mamma, and not- 
withstanding that I will have to go there with incomplete knowledge of metallurgy and 
English — a knowledge that I could make very practicable in less than a year by my 
projected permanence in Pongibant J. You can tell uncle that No. 3 has written to L. a 
letter by this mail, in which he gives him the grade of confidence that he ought to grant 
to the personage of the letter from uncle, and informs him of his renewal of favor towards 
No. 1, result of the two letters, telling him things that will serve for instructions, which I 
hope he will not delay in receiving, and that they will determine him to protect L. 
energetically. What do you say of the idea contained in the Emperor letter of No. 3 to L. to 
determine T. to occupy himself immediately with B. ? I have suggested it iu part, and 
applaud myself for it. I do not comprehend what you write relative to the pretended 
article of "LaPatria." Caricaburu is a famous tale-bearer, (canard;) that article never 
has existed. From that time papa receives daily " La Patria " in Porentruy for the past 
five months, and you know if any article of importance could escape him. I read it 
frequently also ; I have made all the investigations possible, and I can swear to you that 
nothing has appeared similar to what you tell me. You have read in my penultimate 
letter to uncle what I say in name of Mr. Hodgson : "That they are going to undertake 
colossal speculations upon the mines ; that uncle classes them, and amongst them for the 
sale a part of the shares sold immediately, leaving the expenses of the working to the 
acquirers, one part reserved for sale if the value rises, and some shares reserved as lottery 
tickets." You comprehend the importance of this advice. Do what you can, that it may 
have a result. We have placed all in uncle's hands, with a view that it will be saved ; if 
it perishes, it will be his own fault. The opinion of the creditors is becoming favorable to 
the house — according to what Father Maguin said to me yesterday — that cousin Peter 
would have been able to sell his notes at fifty per centum here in Paris. Hottinguer is 
favorable. I refer you in the rest to my letter to uncle for this, for the petition, and for 
the innoxiousness of Noel, because I wrote, as I believe, to uncle that having put Father 
Maguin in movement to instruct No. 3, he had conducted himself very dexterously, 
attempting to surprise Amor Escandon, son-in-law of Subervielle, and his intimate friend, 
and that he had had the conviction in his conversation with him that Noel did not aspire 
to the hand of a Miss Subervielle, and that she did not know him even. Lately Montluc 
has met me and wished to salute me, but I insulted him. No. 3 writes to T. that all will 
be managed in Mexico, and that he will have the power. You see by my letter to uncle 
my conversations with Mr. Hogdson and their result. Papa returns to Paris on the 3d of 
November. It is time, because to many steps and my studies, it is too much. "La 
France" of the 27th of August contains an article upon Wyke — written carefully — one 
could not say more. Consider, dear brother, what may be best for our interests, and, if 
you have motives, not to have unlimited confidence in yourself. This is, besides, the opinion 
of papa and mamma. See, appreciate; our salvation is at stake. 



Paris, October 30, IS 62. 
Mr. J. B. Jecker, Mexico: 

I confirm to you my letter of September 30 last, a duplicate of which I send. After- 
wards I have received yours of August 27 and September 13. Contrary to what I had 

* Marpon. t Chovarier. I EmpetOF. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 117 

thought, it is probable that it may be in Mexico itself where your business may be 
arranged, and for this they will give to Mr. de S. all kinds of powers ; and further, I hope 
that, after what I have done near his Majesty, they will send him favorable instructions. 
Consequently, I do not see any necessity of sending at this moment for Mr. de Ch., or to 
any other. It is necessary , above all, that you succeed in distributing among all the foreign 
merchants of your acquaintance, or of that of your friends, as many times as you can, 
promising them to present them to the custom-house to pay, with the benefit of the dis- 
count of twenty per cent., the duties that the merchandise accumulated in the ports since 
the expedition has taken place ought to satisfy, causing them to observe that if there is, 
as it is said, duty to pay for $2,500,000 foreign commerce, will obtain immediately 
a benefit of $500,000, which will represent a diminution in the tariff of twenty per cent. 

It will be sufficient that there are some merchants who persist in demanding the execu- 
tion of the decrees which have promised them solemnly this compensation, and that after 
having protested in the custom-house against the refusal of their pretensions, carry their 
reclamations before their respective representatives, registering their protests in the chan- 
cery of their legations, to convince the foreign ministers as much of the legitimacy of 
their demands as of the necessity that justice may be done them for the interest of all the 
European commerce. You will comprehend easily that the obstinacy of a single French 
merchant is sufficient, for example, that should he obtain justice in this question, to create 
a precedent that would bring to our opinion all the foreign ministers as well as all the 
other leaders of their country. And you will find easily among your creditors a merchant 
who is fully possessed of the conscience, of the legitimacy, of the legality of its preten- 
sion, and of that obstinate constancy that personal interest gives, insisting upon rights so 
incontestable. In addition, I recommend to you that you make, as soon as possible, a new 
petition to our minister in Mexico as soon as the French arrive there, in order to ask the 
execution of the decrees as being a law of the treasury granted to all the foreign commerce 
as a diminution of the tariff, which will not want precedent in the financial history of 
Mexico. The business of the canal of Nicaragua obtains the preference accidentally. I 
regret it on account of your lands in Tehuantepec ; those that you possess in Sonora could 
obtain value by means of the establishment of a French colony. If you think that I can 
be useful to you in this negotiation, that I have the confidence of being able to conduct it 
to a good result, it will be necessary to send me a note of details upon this point and a 
power of attorney, accompanied by your particular instructions. 

Accept, sir, and dear correspondent, the security of my distinguished sentiments of 
attachment. 

By authority of Morpon. 

CH. FOURNIEE DES ESCTJRES. 



Paris, November 12, 1862. 
I send again the 4th volume of the diplomatic archives, in which I have explained your 
business and analyzed your accounts — I say copied your accounts entirely. Ah, how much 
I should have liked to have the letter of Zarco, of May 6, 1861, of which mention is made 
but transitorily ! As soon as I obtain it I will get it printed (Amyot, street of La Paz 
Leipzig, Brockaus,) in the proximo three months. I have 6een Mr. de Chevarier, who fears 
the discord between Forey and Saligney. Notwithstanding the imperial recommendations, 
which would injure us, he has informed me of the conversation he had with his Majesty. 
From that it follows that there will be, not an Emperor, but a President. He wished 
that influence of Santa Anna, to whom he has spoken, might be made use of, and thought 
he should be named chief of the government; but his Majesty has answered: "Santa 
Anna has declined to be it, writing to Almonte that he take his place, as more fit for that 
part." In a short time we shall see Mr. Hodgson again, because I cannot go to London, 
and he wishes to be informed of the state of affairs, as I believe he is thinking more of the 
interests of English commerce, which he does not wish to abandon to France ; and he is, 
perhaps, instructed by the capitalists to take information. He collects, takes notes, and 
examines. I have told him that France will undertake by herself the railroad immedi- 
ately, without admitting an Anglo-French company, because of being a military road — 
stategic, more than commercial, and that is fully confirmed, and they have seen that my 
foresight was just. I believe that they have intention to sound the land. I have learned 
from Mr. de Becourd that Mr. Montluc, to whom he has spoken, has acquired a good deal 
of information about Mar, his influence, his fortune, his mines in Mexico, about those of 
P., &c, &c. I have answered nothing, finding myself stupefied by what he told me. It 
must have been that Montluc has received a good deal of money to keep saloon and to 
know it all. * * * Prince Murat, for whom Suberveille was banker, (&c.,) this Prince 
Bottomless-purse has occupied himself much with the bonds, according to Mr. de Becourd, 



118 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

hostilely. * s e He has no influence, but, in fine, e * * this proves. * * * 
It might happen that even if you were attacked they would not catch us unprepared. 
This time Louis will do what he can to inform you of the new method for the reduction of 
silver ores, and as we do not advance any money to the inventor, (with reason,) we do not 
run the risk of being victims of a fraud, but of having to expect for yielding to illusions. 
We endeavor to guarantee it by means of multiplied assays, all of which give good result. 
The gold separates itself naturally from the silver, and the residues are all good ; but for 
more security Louis still wishes to speak to his professor, Cahours, rewarded with the 
Jecker prize. Louis wishes to depart for Chili with the inventor the 2d of December, and 
from there go to Mexico in April or May ; but I will not sustain this project. It will be 
necessary that he wait until January, working steadily until then. I have the description 
of the proceeding that requires that ammoniac is manufactured at the place of labor. You 
will comprehend that it would have been necessary to be able to have an understanding 
with you about this, but we cannot wait for the answer to our letters 

It is known here that more than 5,000 men have succumbed to the vomito. The Em- 
press is victim to the bad news that arrived. When reading your letter about the defeat of 
Guadalupe, the only one that could pass, and which I have directed to Fontainebleau, the 
Emperor said, "Madam, behold your work!" Mr. Chevalier knows it f-om an ocular 
witness. The Empress retired to her habitation, where she wept for three days The 
multitude is persuaded that it is on account of a certain Jecker that the war has taken 
place. Louis heard it from the mouth of an old widow, whose son had departed for 
Mexico; but it is almost time lost to dissipate the errors of the ignorant multitude on 
this point Juarez has been clever; Wyke also. The latter has made the seventy-five 
millions tinkle like ready money, contrary to all that has been said or done. People do 
not understand that it is paper, worth only from 15 to 30 per cent. I should have pre- 
ferred that Louis accept one of the two employments offered to him, but he has the idea 
that he must do something that will save you. I shall remain alone in my old age, because 
Augusta will wish to get married. 

Of the letters that follow we publish only extracts referring to politics, marked with 
commas, because they refer in the greater part to matters of family, and to a discovery in 
the method of reducing metals. The ministry, in this particular, has been so scrupulous 
that, although treating of an enemy so capital of Mexico, it wishes to limit itself to the 
defence of the national interests only, thus giving an additional proof of a generosity and 
benevolence with which it has treated this business. — (Editors.) 

Porentrui, November 1, 1862. 
My Dear Son Javier : Your letter of September 28, 1862, has arrived at length to my 
hands. How much your self denial has moved us ; how much our desires to see you in 
your days of sorrow have increased. I shall be in Paris next Wednesday probably, where 
Luis calls me, because he needs my aid and counsel to expedite his march to Mexico by San 
Nazario, to take care of his own affairs and of ours. This boy has gained in his commerce 
a knowledge of the world and of men ; he desires to go to London before his departure, 
but I am not of his opinion ; six weeks, or even six months, for this is very little time, 
when he would require at the least one year. Now, to something else. I have written to 
your uncle with the resolution that I never did before, urging him to take advantage of 
the entrance of the French and of the momentary regeneration of credit which will be its 
consequeuce to liquidate. I reminded him of the appreciation of Mr. le M. de F. , at this 
moment dying, on his mines and his business at large, a matter which I have discussed 
with seriousness because it is necessary to tell him. This gentleman had much disturbed 
and frightened me to the extreme of causing me to leave Paris. 1 have asked the coin- 
ciding opinion of Mr. Stuart Hogdson, with whom we have had new conferences, and wdio 
is kind-hearted with us as well as that of other persons. I have made manifest to Sir. 
Jecker his age, mine, the necessity of concentrating his business, the impossibility almost 
of exercising an efficacious supervision of all of them at fabulous distances, the robberies 
and depredations to which he is exposed. I reminded him of all I said to him at the time 
of the departure of Mr. Porter, about the limitation of his best undertakings ; I tell him 
that if he should be 6ick or should die he would lose everything according to general opinion, 
he alone being capable of carrying on his business. Mamma writes also in this sense ; here is 
what I propose to him : that he divides the mines and the manufactories into shares of 
five and ten thousand dollars, with regard to the vacant lands on the Isthmus, in Sonora, 
and in Matamoras ; perhaps the thing may not be practicable, but that it will be necessary 
to endeavor to s-.ll them. I propose to Mr. J. that he gives in payment iron, bonds, 
credits, houses, shares ; I make him understand that the creditors will accept equivalents that 
will extinguish greater quantities than the debts, if, as Gantier has told me, very hard 
conditions are not imposed. This mode of payment would be advantageous to the house 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 119 

without creditors in different proportions I calculate that a greater part of these last who 
originally repelled the payment in equivalencies comprehend that something is worth 
more than nothing. Say what they may, this plan of which we talked some time ago, 
was not practicable under dread, but now it can be accomplished on a scale more or less 
great. The creditors who have shares in the mines will be interested in supervising. I 
forgot to say to Mr. Jecker that I received the subsidy to take care of the business. On 
this we now live, or better vegetate ; but for the simple lodging and the necessities, it is a 
small matter endeavoring to avoid what can reach his susceptibility on this point. Nothing 
in the world would make me insinuate to him that having filled your task you ought to 
return, after having placed part of our fortune in safety, because this would offend him, 
since I see from his correspondence that he loves you, and esteems you more every day. As 
for our bonds, we are two sentinels placed in the two extremities of the world, whilst we 
communicate events develop and make our conjectures fruitless. Here we awaited the en- 
trance of the French, while there you awaited instructions. Now we are performing these 
parts, I believe, in effect; in consequence of the splendor of this business, it will be necessary 
that his Majesty gives intimation toDrouyn de l'Huys to send orders to Forey and Saligny, 
for the payment of these bonds may be in the total or in part, entering into an adjustment 
with the new government that perhaps restrains its course. You know already that Forey 
is a kind of dictator to whom Saligny is subordinate, but he can, moderating his impetu- 
osity, influence the old sergeant ; and all depends on the good harmony that exists between 
these two gentlemen. It will be necessary, as I have said to my brother-in-law for some 
time, that he dedicates himself to make Saligny more flexible ; that he arranged the man- 
ner so as not to imitate the bear, but, on the contrary, that they make concessions to him. 
* * * Mr. De Saligny has not promised me to save the house. Tell all this to J. and 
; it is time that he is not a little interested ; make a prudent use of my letters, al- 
though I have written nothing that cannot be read. 
Receive kind regards from your mother, &c, &c, &c. 

H. E. 



Paris, November 14, 1863. 

Mr. J. B. Jecker, Mexico : 

Since my last of October 31, a duplicate of which is accompanied, I have received your 
letter of September 27. The news that you give me of the decree of Juarez, relative to a 
loan of fifteen millions of dollars, has been satisfactory to me. This decree, conceived in 
the same terms as those of the government of Miramon, that have been criticised so much, 
appears to me an excellent arm placed in your hands to defend your bonds. How can the 
partisans of Juarez censure now what they have just imitated ? 

I cannot do less than confirm to you in a very especial manner the invitation to set to 
work the plan sent to you in my letter of October 30. This will be, in my opinion, the 
best means of arriving at a solution that cannot be refused. 

The next mail will carry you, without doubt, a letter more in detail from Mr. de Marpon, 
absent at this moment I suppose, on the other hand, that Mr. Elsesser, who is now in 
Paris, will post you up by the packet that leaves San Nazario to-morrow of what occurs. 
Receive, sir, the assurance of my distinguished sentiments, 

CH. FOURNIER DES EOURES. 



San Mauricio, (Ch, de,) November 14, 1862. 

My Dear Jecker: I arrived here yesterday afternoon in company with M. Castillo, who 
is always more or less infirm, which is very alarming, and causes great inquietude. Although 
only a few moments remain to me that I can take advantage of before the packet leaves 
Sin Nazario, I employ them with you, to give you thanks for your kind letter of the 28th 
of September last. Now, as you ought to understand, I have the greatest desire to know 
what result all these rumors have had with which you were threatened — expulsion, con- 
fiscation of property, &c, &c. — things that they will take good care not to carry into 
effect, particularly when they know of the proclamation of General Forey on his arrival 
in Mexican territory — Puebla first and Mexico afterwards. Will they have opposed his 
progress and his entrance ? This is hardly credible, notwithstanding their preparations for 
defence. The army — if such a name can be given to it — the Mexican army will have re- . 
tired to the nide of Morelia and of Queretero, or it will have dispersed to oppose him as 
guerillas. But all this will soon have an end. 

If, as I have written to you, and I think it, the good and honorable Mexicans (because I 



120 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

am not one who does not believe that there are some in Mexico) have hastened to second 
the chief of the French army, with whom, at the hour I write, you will probably have 
formed an acquaintance, or at least you will not delay in doing so, I hope, my good friend, 
he will do you justice, and that within a few years I shall be able to procure for you the 
acquaintance of some good friends I have here, and who, as well as I, desire a complete 
triumph to you. 

As I have informed you, Subervielle, dead, Labadie, it is clear to believe so, will have 
modified his opinion a little about the displeasure the French expedition caused him. 

As you will well understand, all the packets are waited for with great impatience. Within 
a few day we shall have news to the 18th of October from Vera Cruz, and at the end of 
the month until the 1st instant. General Forey and his army will have been able to com- 
mence their march, and it is probable that it may be with complete success. God grant it ! 
Yours, with all my heart, 

O'LAMBELL MAURICIO. 



Paris, (via San Nazario,) November 15, 1862. 

Gentlemen : We have the honor to confirm you our letter of the 30th of August last. 
Since then we have received yours of August 28 and September 30, the contents of which 
we have learned with interest. We have given a letter of recommendation to you to 
Messrs. Villet and Jacqueme, inspectors of the treasury, who go to Mexico with the mission 
to study the financial state of the country. We have believed that you could give them 
useful information, and at the same time it would be convenient for you to know them. 

We know that a collector general, Mr. Budin, also is to start soon with a mission. We 
do not know him, and we cannot have occasion to direct him to you. Nevertheless, we 
invite you to place yourselves in relation with him if the opportunity presents itself. 

Accept, gentlemen, the security of our perfect consideration, 

J. FORTUIGUERO. 

Messrs. J. P. Jecker & Co. , Mexico. 



Paris, November 7, 1862. 

My Dear Brother : I have been in Paris for some days, and it has cost me no trouble 
to convince myself that our protectors had neglected nothing in serving us. The opposition 
has been so great that to conquer it it has been necessary to work upon his Majesty ; and 
it has been done. I have taken away the pamphlet of Luis, and amused Mr. de M ; one 
cannot attempt more. Messrs. Finlay have done what has been possible for them, transla- 
ting and publishing your small memorial, and communicating it to John Russell. In hue, 
they have expedited the articles in which the question is treated, &c. , &c. 

As to your creditors, they hope you will take advantage of the first moment of confusion 
from the entrance of the French to liberate yourself by means of the payment of equiva- 
lencies, that you divide your iron-works, mines, &c, &c, into shares of $5,000 or $10,000 ; 
that you will give them in movables, estates, &c.,&c. Although the situation now may 
be such, it cannot remain in the same state, and it will be necessary to take a step before 
the 1st of January, 1863. Those gentlemen of London, whom we have seen here some 
time before, repeat it to us, and we must respect their opinion. 

The Commandant la Pierre will relieve M. de Chevardie These gentlemen could not 
do less than send a new agent, and, besides, the Marquis de P. is on his death-bed. c " 
This has not concealed your position from us ; I have taken note of all he has said, • 
and without doubt he likes jou, and is disinterested. He had repeated to me that protect- 
ing Villanouve near you had contributed to place him in Tasco, and, as by a great fault, 
your iron-works, mines, &c. ,&c. , are so distant from one another that he could not help 
being robbed. It appeared to 'him that you embraced too much. In fine, what I encoun- 
ter is that you are fifty, I fifty-eight ; the Jeckers are of bronze. in character but not in body. 
M. de Gabriac is sad. He calculated upon being the chief of the cabinet of his friend 
Drouyn. Oh ! he is deceived. ° <• ~ Manage it so that M. de Saligny may do all he can 
with Forey for our house, and not for what is intended as recompense for him. His Majesty 
likes him, and appreciates him. Tell him I wish no other proof than the trouble he has 
taken to vindicate himself in the eyes of his detractors, making them understand, besides, 
that his recall is the triumph of Juarez. I know the exact words he has used with Forty, 
by which he has been obliged to subject himself to Saligny. Have you received the bulle- 
tin that contains your naturalization I Luis has sent two or three copies to you. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 121 



Porentrui, November 3, 1862. 

My Dear Brother : The Marquis of P., who has painted your situation to us in sombre 
colors, considering above all the mines as the gnawing polypus that impedes all distribu- 
tion, is very near death. 

I have told you previously that I would occupy myself with the estimates of the dy- 
ing marquis. I have thought that he was something of a fatalist, but I have faith in his 
friendsbip for you, and looked upon him as a frank and loyal man. Now that I see his 
predictions realized, now that I see two thinkers like the Finlays, twice within tbe inter- 
val of six months, use identical language, first with me, afterwards with my son, it is ne- 
cessary that I partake of his own opinion with much more reason, as all the creditors have 
partaken of it. In other times I wrote to you about the danger of giving too great an ex- 
tension to your business on account of the excess of the speculation ; this was after the depart- 
ure of Mr. Porta ; now I repeat it to you, with all the world, that you have embraced too 
much, and that, not being able to repair the evil now, it is necessary to impede it and to 
diminish it. I will explain myself : Make use of a momentary credit which the entrance 
of the French will give you immediately to liquidate seriously, and as you will not be able 
even to pay in specie your just accounts the first of January, 1863, it is necessary to en- 
deavor to arrange them in equivalencies with a dividend, &c, &c. The creditors will see 
themselves obliged to accept, &c, &c, &c. 

I finish with some words about the bonds. It is requisite that by order of his Maj esty we op- 
erate directly upon Forey or through Saligny, so that these equivalencies may be placed in 
way of payment immediately, because, be it Forey, be it the new government, they will 
repel it and will resist very naturally,and precise instructions will be necessary f iom M. Drouyn 
to conquer the resistance. Seeing the interest that all our friends have in it, I throw this 
case upon them, because, what could I do? Luis has the threads of all the plot. He will 
do his duty. Very likely I shall go to Paris very soon, either to take his place or to aid 
him to know, in fine, if I must sell the rest of our furniture to pay our creditors in Paris. 
It is absolutely necessary that the question be ventilated the first of January, 1863, be- 
cause uncertainty is the worst of evils ; a formal liquidation under your direction would be 
good. Without you it is death for us; that will replace the agony we have suffered for 
two years and a half. It would be beteer * * * * * * * * * 



NEW INTERCEPTED CORRESPONDENCE WITH JECKER. 

[Published with the authority of the Department of Foreign Relations.] 

Paris, October 27, 1862. 

Dear Uncle : My predictions were correct in reference to the choice of the charge 
d'affaires of M. M. When I wrote my opinions to you and the details which I had been 
able to collect from M. Chervasier in reference to M. Lapierre, Almonte's aid, and M. de 
Suligny's ambassador to his Majesty in July last, M. M would have most anxiously de- 
sired that my studies had been finished, in order to intrust me personally with this mis- 
sion with all the influence and all the recommendations possible ; but papa, frightened at 
the sad fate of his agents, (the Marquis de Pierres is in his agony at this moment, and when 
you receive this, will certainly have ceased to exist,) would not have consented but with the 
greatest difficulty, especially in consequence of the malady with which I am yet conva- 
lescent ; moreover, I am distrustful of my experience and of my aptitude for a mission so 
delicate. To be brief, an intermediary course was adopted. As the necessity for an envoy 
was apparent, especially in October or November, the time of the entrance of the French 
into Mexico, when I should be at sea, M. de M. resolved to intrust provisional power to 
M. Lapierre, reserving to himself the right of annulling his authority and transferring it 
to me if he did not attain his object. This M. Lapierre has, to a certain extent, been made 
acquainted with my ideas. He does not know M. de M. ; but the duke has very warmly 
recommended him, saying that he was one who had thoroughly understood the mission of 
M. Pierreo, and who was qualified to accomplish it, while he contented himself with the 
advantages which were proposed to be granted, if influence and confidence were accorded 
to him. I will tell you, in one word, who this personage is. The confidence and the powers 
granted to him by M. de M. are summed up in full in the following letter which has been 
written to him by M. de M. and which is his credentials and his means of making him- 
self known to you ; but he is a rascal, an intriguer, and so be careful how you act with 
him. He is an adventurer, who barked with hunger when he was recommended to M. de 
M. I copy below the letter to which I refer ; he has nothing else from M. M. ; he knows 
no other secrets than those contained in the letter itself, which in nowise compromise us ; 



122 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

a"nd if he tries to persuade you of the contrary, all that he may say beyond this will he 
merely what his natural sagacity may have enabled him to penetrate, without an v possi- 
bility on his part of showing his proofs. Do not permit yourself to be swayed by him. I 
have here the letter which M. M. has transmitted to me, with the request that I would 
transcribe it for you. It has been written under the dictation of the duke and corrected 
by hirn. 

Sib.: Your letter dated at Vera Cruz, August 30, has reached me, and I hasten to reply 
to it. Filled with sentiments of benevolence towards you and me, my friend and protector 
has thought that we might be mutually useful to each other, and he has spoken of our 
affairs in Mexico, which he knows only very superficially. Here is in what they consist: 

Having had intercourse for a considerable time with M. Jecker, whom the unfortunate 
affairs of Mexico and the hostility of some rival houses have brought into discredit, I find 
myself his creditor for quite considerable sums : I have, therefore, an interest in aiding 
him to rise, and I am so much the more interested as I believe him to be a very able and 
a very honorable man; as also because many French houses and nearly all our country- 
men in Mexico are, like myself, his creditors ; in fine, because he is the victim of an arbi- 
trary, unjust, and plundering system of government. 

I have undertaken, in concert with M. de Elsesser, brother in-law of M. Jecker, who 
has come from Switzerland to Paris for this purpose, to defend his interests by informing 
the government and the public as to the validity of his claims, especially in that concern- 
ing the negotiation of the bonds, known under the name of the Jecker bonds, the cause, 
in a great measure, of his failure, and which may likewise prove a reason for the re-estab- 
lishment of his house and the restoration of his affairs. 

Public opinion had totally gone astray in regard to this affair. M. Elsesser has pub- 
lished a memorial which I enclose to you, and which sets the affair in a new light. Here- 
after, our diplomatic agents should sustain it. 

For your part, sir, you can serve this cause, which is that of an honorable house odiously 
persecuted, in the like manner as is French and foreign commerce. 

It would be suitable in this case that you should put yourself in communication with 
M. Jecker, with much secresy and discretion, whenever it may be necessary ; in regard 
to which this letter will be sufficient to accredit you and to bring you to such an under- 
standing as to cause you to work together, as well in reference to our minister in Mexico 
as to our general. 

If the issue crowns your efforts, we can do no less than leave to the benevolent and 
trusty friend who has produced our intercourse, the duty of fixing the remuneration which 
is in justice due to you. 

Receive, &c, &c, &c. 

M. de Chevairier, whom his suspicions already designated to Lapierre as his successor, 
regarded him with evil eye and spoke to hiru with coldness. He told me that Lapierre 
departed from Mexico under very unfavorable auspices of the French army, and left there 
only most odious reminiscences. Whatever there be of exaggeration in these words 
should be attributed to the wounded susceptibility of M. de Chevarrier. In 1849 and 
1850, in the time of the republic, Lapierre was one of the editors of the Corsaire, a petty 
Bonapartist paper which every day appeared with a profusion of truisms and challenges to 
the republicans. Sometimes he had to support his pen with the sword, and he did it 
with courage. He is brave, intriguing, unscrupulous. In one word, he has all the quali- 
ties of a chevalier d' Industrie. He is a double-edged sword that may be used with profit, but 
which must be handled very prudently. M. de M T. would start at the idea of seeing the 
doubloons that he might have in his chest in the hands of such a gentleman. Therefore 
it is that he authorizes me to entreat you to deliver nothing to him personally, and to 
Bend to M. Hodgson or us whatever you may have to transmit in future. 

I presume you have received my last, of the 15th of October. I should regret very 
much if you had not, for it contained important matters. I acknowledge the receipt of 
all which you have sent to me. The manner in which you address them to us is so se- 
cure that I avail myself of it for the present letter, the tenor of which is of too serious a 
nature to be intrusted, without protection, to the fidelity of the Mexican mails. I told 
you in my last that I had a conversation with M. Hodgson, and I mentioned to you the 
pleasure and confidence which were excited in him by my assurances that the house was 
under a high protection. 

I congratulate myself on having made to him spontaneously this act of half- confidence ; 
because in the last visit which he made me, M. Fournier, secretary of M. de M. T., came 
in, charged with a commission from him to me. After I had presented him to M. de 
Hodgson, he spoke to me very liphtly of my approaching presentation to my lord the 
duke, and other things of a formal nature calculated to dispel the suspicions of M. Hodg- 
son, if he had any remaining ; but which fully confirmed the little story which I had 
already related to him. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 123 

The evening of the departure of M. Hodgson, the Moniteur announced the appointment 
of M. Drouyn de l'Huys to the department of foreign affairs in place of M. de Thouvenel ; 
and he manifested much agitation at this, and came to me to see me immediately, in order to 
know the degree of intimacy that might exist between our protectors and M. Drouyn de 
l'Huys ; because, said he to me, he is, unfortunately, on intimate terms with Lord John 
Russell, who represented England in the congress of Vienna, and who showed himself very 
pliant in reference to some points of secondary interest, in order to prove to M. Drouyn 
de l'Huys, the French ambassador in the same congress, the spirit of conciliation with 
which he was animated. I could not satisfy him at the moment, because those gentle- 
men are temporarily absent, but I promised to write to him as soon as he should return 
to London. I took advantage of this opportunity to address to him, some days afterwards, 
a letter with an amplification of papa's defence, and of your.memorial on the real interests of 
commerce in the negotiation of bonds, requesting him to have them translated into En- 
glish, and to seek an opportunity to present them to Lord John Kussell, in order to destroy 
his odious suspicions in regard to our affair ; also, to represent to him that the interests of 
English commerce were likewise involved in it, and that his house was very much inter- 
ested in its happy solution. In order to give more authority to my words and more lati- 
tude to my counsels, I pretended that they had been inspired into me by M. de G-., in 
our common interest. '*M. Drouyn de l'Huys," said I to them, "has not yet formed 
any opinion in regard to the bonds, but M. de Gr. , who is a very intimate friend of his 
aud of the Baron d'Andree, his chief secretary, will probably be called in a short time to 
the minister's house in order to give him some explanations. No one is more suitable 
than he is to do so, and he will use all his influence in the furtherance of our interests. 
The entrance of M Drouyn de l'Huys into the cabinet is a very favorable omen for the 
triumph of conservative ideas It is a reaction against liberal ideas. Let us hope that the 
new minister will not diverge from his general course of policy in this affair only of the bonds. 
But you know very well, gentlemen, it will be much more easy to form the opinion of M. 
Drouyn if it be not already fixed, to turn it to our favor, if, perchance, it should be unfavor- 
able, when now he is not yet beset by powerful solicitations, by hostile insinuations. In order 
to effect this it is necessary to combat calumny in its very source, to make an effort to enlighten 
John Russell. In view of an English interest he will hesitate. The bitterness which he has 
manifested in persecuting us will, perhaps, be somewhat diminished, and that will be an 

immense victory ; it will be to destroy hostility hostility personified by the English 

minister ! ! . After John Russell, — public opinion, it would, in fact, 

be very useful to publish some articles in the Times, in concurrence with our articles in 
Paris, when the time shall come." These gentlemen replied to me immediately, telling 
me that they hastened to do what I wrote to them, and that they had been translated as 
soon as my letter had been received. They manifest much zeal and great confidence. I 
hope that their zeal will be still further quickened by the letter which I address to them 
with this. I tell them that we have achieved a great triumph during these few days past, 
but I do it in discreet terms, because it is good to acquaint them with the results in order 
to give them confidence and to incite them to assist in the restoration of the house ; but it 
is useless to divulge the means to them. As their only objection against the prosperous 
issue of the efforts which they are going to make is, that the affair of the bonds is a pri- 
vate interest, I insinuate to them that it depends on them to make it one of public inter- 
est and to attain a double object at the same time ; to secure its favorable settlement by 
changing the English policy in reference to it, in consideration of the interest that they 
and other English houses may take in it, and to realize great profits, since, as you say, it 
is an affair of two millions five hundred thousand dollars of duties to be collected at Vera 
Cruz, with the entrance of merchandise in its port. I think that a letter from you of a 
commercial and argumentative character would make a great impression on these gentle- 
men now that the ground is prepared. 

Perhaps the result which we have obtained is the most decisive stroke of policy that has 
been achieved since these gentlemen have taken up the question of the bonds. Under 
date of August 15 or 28, M. de Saligny has addressed from Orizaba to M. de Pierres a very 
important letter, in which he represents Laurencez as an unfortunate individual, incapable, 
worthy rather of pity than of hatred, on account of the sad state of his health ; but he 
attributes all the evil to Valaye, his chief of staff, who by his haughtiness and his 
incapacity had, according to him, caused the failure of the whole expedition. He says, 
likewise, that he has suffered so many calumnies on account of the affair of the bonds, 
that he will no longer be able to act so directly as heretofore ; that it will be necessary to 
send out there some safe and skilful person to watch for the ripening of the fruit. After 
some incidental words against Noel, he concludes by saying that formal instructions 
are being sent him in order to place him in a condition to act and to regulate his position 
properly. M. de M. T. gave it to me in order to attend to it as far as concerned the house 
and Noel, and in order to present the affair as a French interest in concurrence with 



124 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

English interests, an interest misrepresented by the disloyal course of Wyke, who, in order 
to increase the security of the English creditors, whose interests were assured by the same 
pledges as the bonds, was not afraid to reject this affair, notwithstanding its justice, and 
to make himself the official interpreter of all the calumnies of Juarez and his associates, 
&c, &c. 

I applied myself as best I could to the performance of this task, including the greatest 
number of ideas in the fewest possible words, in order that it might not be supposed that, 
in expatiating at length on this affair, M. de Saligny gave it any other importance than 
that of indignation at seeing a dishonest infamy on the part of Wyke thus gained, and 
the efforts of French diplomacy frustrated in an affair so just. I strove, moreover, to 
preserve in the style its tone of military bruskness and manly indignation. The letter 
appeared very good to those gentlemen, and M. de M. T. hesitated whether he should give 
it the name of an extract, or of a copy, or should make it pass as an original, when there 
arrived by the last post a second letter from M. de Saligny, dated at Orizaba, September 15, 
and no less important than the former one. Both were put together, and on the following 
day my lord duke presented it to his Majesty, who read it with much interest. His confi- 
dence in M. de Saligny, already excessive, was still more augmented. " My.," said he to the 
duke, "it is necessary that all these difficulties in M. de Saligny's position should cpase ; 
I will make my arrangements in regard to it ; but there is one thing in bis letter which 
gives me much cause for reflection. He has strong suspicions of Noel, and yet I believe 
him to be an honorable man. Moved by the calumnies that were circulated, I ordered, 
some time ago, an investigation to be issued in the ministry of foreign affairs, and it has had 
no effect." " Nevertheless," interposed the duke, " I am certain of it." " Well, then," 
replied his Majesty, "try to collect the proof of the fact, and, if there is any certainty, 
he will be displaced." These gentlemen are aware of Noel's hostility to G. , who has 
received instructions from Almonte ; but this is a little vague. I have promised those 
gentlemen to give them all information on the subject, and I have gone to the residence 
of Padre Maguin in order to put him on the track, paying him off with the first reason 
that occurred to me, proper to excite his zeal. I have now returned, and according to what 
he has told me, I believe that Noel has nothing to look for in this affair. Amor Escandon, 
son-in-law of Subervielle. a very intimate friend of Father Maguin, came yesterday to take 
leave of him, because he is going, as I think, to Mexico. Dexterously enough in the 
course of the conversation, Father Maguin suddenly asked him: " Do you not know a 
person named Noel, a director in the department of foreign affairs ? I have some one to 
whom to recommend him." "No," replied the other, "I do not know him at all." 
Maguin persisted in his inquiry, but he could get no other answer. I have related this 
conversation to M. de M. T. this morning, but he perseveres in his suspicions. I shall be 
presented to-morrow at mid-day (October 30) to M. de My.; he has desired to see me ; I 
know not whether it is to judge whether I am fit for some future mission. If my letter 
had not to be despatched to-day, in order that the Messrs. Hodgson & Co. may have time 
to put it in their packet, I would wait until to-morrow to tell you the result of the con- 
versation. If there be anything of importance, I will inform you of it in the letter which I 
will address to Nr. after to-morrow, (October 30,) but as it is necessary to be prudent, I shall 
designate his Majesty as No. 1, M. de My. as No. 2, M. de M. T. as No. 3. lam much 
obliged to you for the little note which you have addressed to me. I shall set out very soon 
for the silver mines of Sougibault, and I shall do all that may lie in my power in order to 
acquire connexions there that may be useful hereafter. The creditors are well disposed. 
As soon as papa arrives, within two or three days, we are going to present a petition 
entreating his Majesty to extend his protection to the house in the name of French interests. 
This petition, signed with the names of your creditors, will be presented directly by No. 2 
to No. 1 ; judge of its importance ! ! Gabriac is somewhat slow and timorous ; he has an 
excessive dread of compromising himself if he is urged to exertion. Mt. has acknowledged 
to me that he (Gabriac) shared half the profits of the bonds. I have told him in reply 
that he had some interest in the house ; he has promised me to tell it to him as if it came 
from the Count de Pierres, and to urge him on, because he can be very useful to us on 
account of his intimacy with Drouyn. I think that instructions will be sent to M. de 
Saligny. Mt. desires to serve you with his Majesty in respect to your lands in Souora. He 
has collected all the details that I have been able to give him. Communicate, if you please, 
this letter to Nr. ; I have not time to speak to him of your progress. 

Adieu, my dear uncle. Assuring you of all my heart's love, I remain your most 
affectionate nephew, 

LUIS ELSESSER. 

Washington, March 31, 1863. 
A true copy : 

ROMERO. 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 125 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 12, 1863. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st 
ultimo with its enclosures, in continuation of other similar communications with 
which you have favored me, relating to events in Mexico, growing out of the 
unhappy foreign war in which that republic is involved. 

Thanking you for the pains you have taken in keeping me so fully informed 
of transactions equally vital and interesting, I avail myself of this occasion to 
renew to you, sir, the assurances of my distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Don Matias Romero, fyc., fyc, 8fc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States, 

Washington, November 6, 1863. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to transmit to you, for the knowledge of 
the department over which you preside, a translation into English of the debates 
which took place in the Corps Legislatif of France on the 6th and 7th of Feb- 
ruary of the present year, in relation to the Mexican question. The translation 
referred to has been faithfully made from the official report of the proceedings 
of that assembly, as published in the Moniteur Universel, Nos. 38 and 39, of 
the 7th and 8th of February mentioned, pages 182, 183, 184, and 185, and 191, 
192, and 193. 

I profit by this opportunity to convey to you, sir, the assurance of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, 8fc., Sfc. 



[Le Montieur Universel, No. 38— February 7, 1863— page 182, vol. 5th] 
Debates in the French Legislative body. 

Session of Friday, February 6. 

His excellency the Duke de Morny, president, in the chair. 

The session was opened at a quarter past two o'clock. The minutes were read by M. the 
Marquis de Talhouet, one of the secretaries, and adopted. 

The President. I have received from M. Alfred Le Roux a request for leave of absence 
for fifteen days. Is there no opposition ? The leave is granted. Does any one desire the 
floor to make a report? 

Count Napoleon de Champagny. I have the honor to present a report on the bill to 
authorize the department of Morbihan to effect a loan and to levy an extraordinary impost. 

The President. The report will be printed and distributed. The regular order of the day 
is the continuation of the discussion on the address. (The government benches were 
occupied by Messrs. Baroche, president of the council of state ; Billault, Magne, ministers 
without portfolios; M. de Parieu, vice-president of the council of state; General Allard, 
Messrs. Boudet, Vuillefroy, Boinvilliers, and Vuitry, chairmen of committee in the council 
of state.) 

The Chamber yesterday stopped at paragraph the third. An amendment has been pro- 
posed to this paragraph. M. Picard, one of its proposers, is entitled to the floor. The 
amendment is as follows: 

"We admire the heroism of our soldiers combatting in Mexico under a destructive 
mcliate, and we send them our wishes of sincere sympathy ; but the care of the national 



126 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

honor does not dispense a political assembly from juding an enterprise of which it can now 
know the cause and foresee the consequences. The forces of France ought not to be rashly 
engaged in ill-defined and adventurous enterprises and expeditions, and neither our princi- 
ples nor our interests counsel us to proceed to inquire what government the Mexican people 
may desire." 

M. Ernest Picard. Gentlemen, if there was needed a striking illustration in justification 
of the great principles of freedom enunciated here yesterday, I believe that it would be 
furnished to us by the history of the Mexican expedition. It has been decided upon with- 
out you, followed out without you, and I can assert, without fear of contradiction, that it 
has never been restrained by any excess of control or publicity ; for it is to be regretted 
that what was done at the time when the Crimean war was most actively waged, the pub- 
lication of documents relative to the war, should not have taken place with regard to the 
Mexican expedition. 

I know that our army is repairing at this moment the faults of our diplomacy. I know 
that, thanks to their intrepidity, the issue is not doubtful. A year ago the honorable 
minister of foreign affairs without portfolio told us that our troops should, at the very 
moment of his speech, be entering Mexico ; I would wish to be able to give the same 
assurance to-day. But what I do know is that, in this discussion in which such deep-rooted 
differences of opinion may cause us to disagree with the government, at least we are iaspired 
with a unanimous sentiment of sympathy by the energy and the valor of our troops. It is 
not then exactly of the Mexican war that I desire to offer a few remarks ; it is in regard to 
our policy, it is in regard to the undertaking which must be finally judged in public debate. 

Is it proper, gentlemen, to discuss this undertaking ? Is it opportune to do so at the 
present moment? We could not do it sooner to any useful purpose ; for while the Spanish 
Parliament, while the English Parliament were in possession of the diplomatic documents 
capable of throwing a certain light on the subject, the French government had thought 
proper to defer laying them before the Chamber ; but now, gentlemen, the documents 
speak, and events speak yet more loudly than the documents, and we can know what the 
treaty of London is worth and what the expedition undertaken in consequence of it. 

The treaty of October 31 has united in one common action three great powers which 
6eemed to have the same interest, but which were to proceed to Mexico with quite opposite 
Sentiments. 

England, who, if I may use the expression, possesses Mexico by her titles of credit ; who 
has, by regular contracts, for many years caused the resources and the revenues of Mexico 
to be hypothecated to herself, and who can claim, beyond controversy, 300 millions of francs 
the day when Mexico will be in a condition to pay them ; England, gentlemen, was the 
power that seemed least disposed to take part in the expedition. Spaiu, on the contraiy, 
attracted by ancient reminiscences, wishing to re-establish iu that country a dominion which 
she had formerly exercised ; Spain, morever, offended at a personal insult, was more eager 
than England and than France, aud it appears from the despatches before us that, even 
previous to the year 1860, she thought of the expedition. She had received a personal 
offence ; her ambassador, Don Francesco Pacheco, at the time when Juarez held at Vera Cruz 
while the government of Miramon expired at Mexico, had passed through Vera Cruz and 
gone to find Miramon, whom he had recognized as the legitimate government almost to 
the eve of the day when it was to fall under the blows of the Mexican nation. He had 
been expelled for having taken part in the intrigues in progress at that moment ; Spain 
had never pardoned this offence. 

You see, gentlemen, how and with what interests England on the one side, aud Spain on 
the other, were called to Mexico. England, who knows how to count, had stipulated, in 
the treaty of London, an arrangement according to which no nation could obtain particular 
advantages ; she thus preserved her rights and her credits ; moreover she took but a 
very moderate part in the expedition, for the had informed our government that she would 
not furnish any troops for disembarkment in the country. 

As to France, gentlemen, as to French interests, the honorable minister without portfolio 
spoke of them in eloquent terms, in two discourses present to your memory. He said that 
the accumulated outrages of twenty years demanded that a French force should be sent to 
protect our countrymen and at last compel justice to be done to them. 

Twenty years ! that would be pretty long for France ; and if such has been the sole 
motive of the expedition, if these accumulated outrages, of which the honoiable minister 
spoke with so much eloquence, were the real cause of the enteririse, I would make you 
but one reproach, that of haying undertaken it, not twenty years, but at least ten years too 
late for the responsibility of the present government. 

The Chamber should understand it well, for it is the main poiut of debate iu the question 
before you. 

There were indeed some grievances, some claims founded on the part of our countrymen. 
For three years Mexico was rent by civil war, for three years especially there were two 



, 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 127 

governments, and neither of the two was sufficiently powerful to restrain the marauding 
bands that infested the roads and attacked those who exposed themselves to meet them. 
We have in Mexico a little French colony composed of from 2,000 to 3,000 persons. 
Claims, which have not been yet sufficiently justified, had been indeed carried to the con- 
sulate. In fine, it was the state of the country which had brought on these new grievances, 
and with the exception of one serious case which interested the English much more than 
us, it might be said that if grievances existed for twenty years, they had not augmented. 
In these last years, there was a serious grievance. The old president, Miramon, at the 
moment when he was about to fall, finding no more resources to pay his last troops, had 
laid hands on 660,000 piastres deposited in the English legation. He had seized on it with 
the assistance of Marquez and certain other persons, and that was one of the reasons which 
decided England to interfere. 

Here, gentlemen, I pause a moment. Juarez was just installed at Mexico. He was in 
extreme penury ; in such penury that M. de La Fuente. his ambassador in France, could 
not leave for want of funds to pay his passage. I ask of the government if that was the 
moment to proceed to avenge our countrymen, and to require payment of indemnities 
which an exhausted treasury could not give ? 

Was there, however, on the part of the government of Juarez, a bad faith or ill-will to 
justify the expedition ? That has been maintained ; but an attentive scrutiny shows the 
reverse. If, obliged to seek resources from all quarters, he issued the decree of July 17, 
which suspended the payment of the indemnities due to the three powers that signed the 
treaty of London — if he did this, representations were made by our agents, his ministers 
consented to reconsider that decree, and alleged only their inability to furnish pecuniary 
satisfaction. 

So, you will immediately see a still more complete demonstration : that was not the 
sole, the real motive of the enterprise which is now carried on, and of which I have to seek 
the causes. It is certain, and this can no longer be called in question, that there existed, 
in the ideas of two of the contracting powers, the design of favoring the establishment in 
Mexico of a monarchical form of government. This was denied in the session of March 13, 
1862 ; it was denied also in the session of the month of June, but now a clearer light is 
thrown on these denials ; and indeed, gentlemen, I proceed to furnish you immediately a 
moral proof of it which will strike your mind. I was saying just now how our little 
French colony, given to a very limited commerce, could not furnish the elements of a 
credit of such a nature as to explain, on the part of a government such as that of France, 
the resolution of undertaking such an expedition as this to Mexico. 

Claims then were wanting ; and this is so true, that the only creditor who now claims, 
in the ultimatum of our plenipotentiaries, a considerable sum, a sum of from sixty to 
seventy-five millions — this creditor is a well-known banking-house — that of Jecker. 

Well, gentlemen, give me your attention, and tell me whether what I am now going to 
reveal to you does not show you what spirit prevailed in the organization of the Mexican 
expedition. The Jecker banking-house was Swiss ; its chief was Swiss ; he was born at 
Porentruy, at a period when that city did not belong to France. Do you know, gentlemen, 
at what time this creditor, who is going to be protected, has become French ? Do you 
know what is the date of his naturalization? The date of his naturalization is the 26th of 
March, 1862. You may refer to the Bulletin des Lois, No. 13,441, under the date of 
August 31, 1862, and you will see that a decree, dated March 26 preceding, has rendered 
him French, in whose name we now proceed to claim an enormous sum, which claim has 
been one of the causes of the rupture of the treaty of London in Mexico and the departure 
of the allies. I have then reason to say that the causes of the expedition well studied 
are not those which you can read in the discourses of the honorable minister ; time has 
advanced, and truth has advanced with time, and discloses to us to some extent the real 
nature of things. * 

As to this project of favoring the establishment of a monarchical authority, of a 
monarchy in Mexico, in truth if our diplomacy has conceived it, it was ignorant of what 
all the world knew, and did not follow those rules which I believe superior to those of 
diplomatic skill, namely, the rules of justice and of common sense. Who of you, gentle- 
men, has not already understood that, if we went with arms to Mexico, with the idea of 
proposing to that country to choose a government freely, Mexico, terrified by the display of 
these ambassadors and these mediators, would see in it an attempt at invasion, and not the 
benevolent mediation of powers animated by kindly sentiments? Wherefore, reason 
inflexibly dictated the result which has not failed to be produced— that is, one of two things : 
either the Mexicans, degraded as you said they were, knowing them badly, would yield to 
the foreigner and surrender their rights as a people ; or else, uniting in one common 
sentiment against the invaders, and finding in the national opinion their resources for 
defence— poor, it is true, but the peoples that are poor are sometimes those that defend 
themselves most energetically — would form in effect one nation, but one nation turned 



128 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

against those who brought them this offensive mediation. Wherefore, also, you could not 
succeed except on condition that you paid yourselves the price of your triumph. Behold, 
gentlemen, a policy which judged itself, as it has been judged by events, and which was 
understood long ago by men possessed at the same time of intelligence and authority in 
their couutry. Indeed, you told the English minister what your hopes were. What did 
he reply to you? Or rather what did he tell you in those despatches, since published? 
Earl Eussell wrote under date of the month of February, 1862, to the ambassador at 
Vienna : 

" I have received your excellency's despatch on the subject of the propositions to place 
the Archduke Maximilian on the throne of Mexico, and you observe that this project has 
been conceived by the Mexican refugees at Paris. This class of people are notorious for 
their unfounded calculations on the strength of their partisans in their native country, and 
for the extravagance of their hopes of assistance. Your excellency will see by the docu- 
ments laid before Parliament, that Marshal O'Donnell is of opinion that it is a chimerical 
idea to wish to establish a constitutional monarchy in Mexico by means of a foreign inter- 
vention." 

Behold, gentlemen, what everybody repeated ; behold what was understood by every 
one except you ; and see how, when you asked English diplomacy to consent to the 
establishment in Mexico of a monarchy to be governed either by the Archduke Maximilian 
or by some other candidate, English diplomacy smiled and said to you : We are willing, 
but yours be the undertaking. So then, gentlemen, on this point there cannot be two 
opinions ; and in the discourse of a man who more especially represented your policy in 
Spain, in the discourse of M. Mon — discourse, gentlemen, which, like that of General Prim, 
has not been published in the French journals that I know of — in the discourse of M. Mon 
we read this : 

" Why this word afrancisados, by whieh it is sought to designate certain persons? Let it 
be clearly explained : let them tell us what are the French interests which we are going to 
defend in the question in debate. What are they ? If there is any one who can say, he 
certainly knows neither the treaty, nor the negotiations, nor the motive of the expedition. 
What interest had Spain ? Spain had greater interests involved in this question than any 
of the powers that have signed the treaty. Spain had the great interests which I have 
mentioned and which gave us a part to act superior to that of the other nations. And 
Fiance, gentlemen — what are the interests of France in this question ; what are the 
powerful motives that she had to unite with Spain in such distant countries, where so many 
events have happened, where we have procured her so many occasions of disgust, where 
she has had so many mischances ? What was the interest of France ? A claim for certain 
sums of money ; the protection of some three or four thousand Frenchmen employed in a 
little trade. 

"Such was the interest of France, who sent an expedition to which the majority of the 
empire was opposed, because it was contrary to its interests. As to me, when I met in the 
streets of Paris my particular friends, men of importance in the country, they said to me, 
' We understand that you are satisfied ; but we, what are we to do there ? what have we 
to gain there ? what compensation are we to obtain for all the money that we are going to 
spend, for all the men that we are going to lose V Who wished Prince Maximilian to be 
monarch of Mexico? What interest had France in this? What matter was it to the 
Emperor that Prince Maximilian should be King of Mexico?" 

See, gentlemen, how impossible it is to mistake the import of the treaty of London. 
That treaty is judged by itself; no diplomatist of character can have signed it, with the 
end proposed, without gravely compromising the interests of the policy of our country. 

I assert it, gentlemen, in the name of reason, in the name of logic ; but if I wished to 
rise higher, to rise to principles which the country caunot abandon without losing some- 
thing of its strength and of its moral influence in the world, I would say that it is with 
profound regret, with profound grief, that we have seen France obliged to address to the 
Mexicans a proclamation which recalls that addressed in 1792 to France by the gene- 
ralissimo of the armies of Prussia and Austria. (Exclamations from a great number of 
benches.) 

Some voices : Very good. 

M. Ernest Picahd. Yes, gentlemen. And my words must not be misunderstood — must 
be taken in the sense, in the only sense, which I wish to give them. There is no doubt, 
gentlemen, with regard to the language whieh a nation, whether animated by good or by 
bad intentions, is obliged to use when presenting itself in arms before another nation. 
Do you know how the Duke of Brunswick expressed himself in 1792 ? "Convinced," he 
says, " that the sane part of the French nation abhors the excesses of a faction that holds it 
in subjection, and that the great majority of the inhabitants await with impatience the 
moment of assistance to declare themselves openly against the odious undertakings of their 
oppressors, his Majesty the Emperor and his Majesty the King of Prussia call upon 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 129 

them and invite them to return without delay to the path of reason and of justice, of 
order and of peace. It is with these views that I, the undersigned, commander-in-chief 
of the two armies, declare : 

"That, drawn into the present war by irresistible circumstances, the two allied courts 
propose to themselves no other end than the happiness of France, without any intention 
of enriching themselves by conquests." 

I do not wish, gentlemen, to insist on this idea, which, I am certain, is yours, too ; by 
insisting upon it, I would fear to hurt the sentiments I experience myself; but I say that 
the treaty of London, thus understood, can have none but unfortunate results, and that 
what should come to pass can be, and ought to be, foreseen by men who should have con- 
sidered what necessary consequences may flow from their acts. 

And, in fact, gentlemen, what was to come to pass? The troops depart for Mexico, and 
from the first hour a disagreement shows itself. There is question first of settling the 
amount of the sums due to us ; an ultimatum must be drawn up. Here, again, in the 
name of my country, I feel the blush rise to my cheek, when I think of what has been 
said in the presence of our plenipotentiaries, what they have been obliged to hear. 

See how a man who, I acknowledge, does not sympathize with your policy, and who, 
moreover, is now irritated, see how General Prim renders account of the first conference. 
[Exclamations and murmurs.] Be calm, gentlemen, I take the words littered by General 
Prim at a time when he was not irritated, and I take them simply to state facts. 

"It was then for Admiral Jurien to give account of the ultimatum proposed by M. de 
Saligny, and it is here the disagreement commenced. The French claims comprise the 
payment of twelve millions of piastres, the figure at which the French minister has esti- 
mated those which he deems legitimate. They comprise the execution of a contract of 
Miramon with a commercial house originally Swiss, and afterwards become French, con- 
cluded at the moment when his government was in the agonies of dissolution. 

" At the mention of the Jecker contract, the English representatives cried out in one 
voice that that was an inadmissible demand. 

" This disagreeable incident paralyzed for the moment the progress of the negotiations, 
and placed us in a position of great embarrassment." 

In fact, gentlemen, from this first moment, for this first motive, discord shows itself ; 
community of action in effect ceases ; each one of the nations will itself defend its own 
ultimatum, whereas neither the English nation nor the Spanish nation is willing to accept 
the pretensions of our ministers. 

They talk of it in France. Now, in France, what is said, and how shall we explain the 
singular ignorance in which the minister of foreign affairs was left in this regard ? 

In a conversation between Lord Cowley and M. Thouvenel, the latter expresses himself 
thus, as it appears from a letter of Lord Cowley to Lord John Russell : " M. Thouvenel 
says that, neither in his conversations with me. nor in his instructions to M. de Flahault, 
has he consented to abandon the Jecker claim ; that he had never known so as to form an 
opinion on the subject ; that he did not know to what point French interests were in- 
volved in it ; that, consequently, he should leave the whole affair to the discretion of M. 
de Saligny, in whose probity he reposed entire confidence " 

See how things went on; and if you will please to remember that on the 26th of 
March, 1862, (this despatch is dated the 14th,) at this date only, that is, ten days after 
this despatch, the banker Jecker obtained his letters of naturalization, you will see that 
there is in this affair an enigma which the lucid speech of the minister for foreign affairs 
without portfolio would strive to make us understand. [Murmurs of approbation and dis- 
approbation.] 

So, scarcely had this first cause of discord manifested itself, when, behold, a second 
arises. A vessel brings to Vera Cruz the famous Miramon, Padre Miranda, and thirty per- 
sons more or less celebrated of the last government of Mexico. Then the English minis- 
ter pretends that ex-President Miramon having laid hands on 660,000 piastres which be- 
longed to the English legation, he should be considered not as a political individual, but 
as an ordinary malefactor, and that, in consequence, his first duty is to demand that he 
should be compelled to re-embark 

Who resists this re-embarcation ? At first it is General Prim, but he yields. This 
argument, says Sir Charles Wyke, had its weight with General Prim, but it was only half 
accepted by Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, and M. Dubois de Saligny always opposed it. 
The packet brought Miramon with thirty persons, among whom was the famous Father 
Miranda and other members of the clerical party. It seems that his partisans awaited 
him on the coast with horses and arms, and all that was necessary to renew the civil war., 

You can understand, gentlemen, that in such circumstances, when the conferences were 
opened which are known under the name of the Preliminaries of La Soledad, it is evident 
that the plenipotentiaries were destined not to find themselves unanimous. 

But before terminating this incident of the history of the Mexican expedition, let me 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 9 



130 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

be permitted to recall to your minds the remarkable speech delivered before you by the 
minister of foreign affairs You know how the honorable M. Billault, fascinating you 
by his eloquence, elicited your applause by telling you that in that country, Mexico, they 
called a robbery a seizure, and that the tribunals condemned only to civil reparation those 
who had taken away the property of others. He made allusion to a judgment of the 10th 
of August, 1861, rendered precisely on the occasion of the carrying off of the funds of the 
English legation, and of which the motive is as f illows : 

"Considering as beiiig comprised in the first category the seizure of the funds destined 
for the payment of English creditors, effected by order of the rebel chiefs Miramon and 
Marquez, November 17, 1860, in the house No. 11, street of the Capuchins ." 

You understand, gentlemen, that the Mexicans, whatever confidence they may have had 
in our words, in our proclamations, must feel very uneasy with regard to the success of a 
regeneration which commenced by the introduction of Miramon, of Father Miranda, and 
of several others ; of Marquez, gentlemen, who now fights under our flag, and who, 
nevertheless, was celebrated in Mexico for his ferocity ; of Marquez, who is one of the 
principal persons concerned in those armed attacks committed on the highways against 
which our countrymen were to be protected. 

What policy, then, gentlemen, inspired the government when it acted in this way ? 
And to what influence did it yield ? In truth, when I inquire what the conditions are of 
the regeneration of Mexico, and what on the point of these conditions was the real idea 
of the government, I find it quite hesitating, and I commence to fear that the government 
is committing seiious errors in principle and doctrine. 

When, for the first time, it addressed itself to England, asking the concurrence of the 
latter with it in a plan of action in common, England, gentlemen, which in maters of 
external policy has a fixed idea, asked two things: An amnesty and the establishment in 
Mexico of religious liberty. What did our government reply? I find the evidence of it 
in a despatch of M. Barrot of June 2, 1862. It replied that it consented to the amnesty, 
but that it refused the establishment of religious liberty in Mexico. It replied in the fol- 
lowing terms, or at least its ambassador, M. Barrot, expressed himself in those terms : 

•'The cabinet of London desires at the same time a general amnesty and the adoption 
of a system of religious toleration. The first of these measures seem also to the Em- 
peror's government indicated by the situation the day when the parties shall have been 
reconciled. But it has not concealed from the British government that the establishment 
of religious liberty in Mexico appeared to it to offer a serious objection, besides being un- 
called for by any necessity in the political or moral condition of the country." 

These facts being known, is it not unnecessary to say, with the English ministers who 
were witnesses of it, what I find in a despatch of the ambassador of London to Earl Rus- 
sell, thus couched, under date of May 2, 1862 : 

"I would deceive your lordship," sayshe, "if I concealed from you my personal conviction 
that there exists a fixed determination, though not avowed, to overturn the government 
of Juarez, whatever may be the consequences of that act, and whether civil war results 
from it or not." 

See how our policy in Mexico was understood. The honorable minister to whom I reply 
will say, perhaps, that it was judged severely and judged by rivals. But I would wish 
that, at least, the events could answer for him, and that those which have followed should 
not have happened. 

The preliminaries of La Soledad are opened ; the conferences are held, and you know 
how a discord breaks out. Here also I accuse, and I accuse directly, the government of 
an act which I find one of those acts the most to be regretted and the most painful that 
exist in our diplomatic history. 

Arrived in Mexico, at Vera Cruz, under a climate where the yellow fever reigns, our 
plenipotentiaries, in the interest of the health of our troops, obtain from the government 
of Juarez permission for them to proceed to the upper plateau, beyond the defiles guarded 
by the Mexican troops, during the deliberations ; on their word of honor that, when those 
deliberations should be terminated or broken off, if broken off they should be without re- 
sult, they should resume their position and return to this side of the defiles. Well, in 
accordance with an order issued from hence, our troops, who would have a thousand times 
preferred to take these defiles which would not have resisted them, were obliged to march 
forward to establish themselves at Orizaba, and to assist in sorrow at the violation of the 
engagements made. • 

Oh, gentlemen, it is always imprudent to desire to regenerate the people when we are 
not Bumciently sure of ourselves ; and, indeed, when the government pursues in Mexico 
such conduct as I have briefly Bketched, I ask myself whether it has not understood what 
there is rash in this expedition, and whether it does not regret bitterly to have neglected, 
in undertaking it, the counsels and the control of the representatives of the nation. 

So, also, you know how, on the 9th of April, the conference being broken off, according 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 13 L 

to orders issued directly from here, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere declares that he will 
march on Mexico ; the English declare that they are going to withdraw, a thing which, I 
think, they had foreseen in advance ; aad the Spanish imitate them. 

I pass no opinion on the conduct of the Spanish, and I agree with what the minister 
has said in regard to the English, who seem not to have deceived us. Yet I find in this 
rupture of the alliance, in this cessation of action in common thus coming to pass without 
the French government being able to make any cause of complaint out of it, to protest 
against its allies, or to reply to what has been said in every assembly with regard to our 
diplomatic conduct — I, find I say, an occasion to address a very severe reproach to those 
who represent our policy, a reproach for the want of foresight against which, it seems to 
me, they will find it difficult to defend themselves. 

See, gentlemen, how the Mexican expedition has been conducted to this day. What 
will be the consequences of it ? What will be the result ? What do you wish to do in 
Mexico, and what, in fine, is your policy ? I know that at this moment, and at this 
moment only, when the conferences are broken off, when all things have passed as I have 
said, there appears unexpectedly a system of grand policy which seems to have been kept 
in reserve, and which, in any case, would save appearances only at the expense of the 
frankness of our agents. 

They tell us that there is an interest superior to this that the United States of the north 
should not encroach upon Mexico, that we must resist their invading power, and that it is 
an interest of great policy, of very great policy, which has taken us to Mexico and which 
keeps us there. 

Oh, gentlemen, I do not examine, I shall not examine at length the after-thought 
scheme thus inaugurated ; I find that it is in such manner judged by the facts, in such 
manner refuted by the first principles of political and common sense, that I am unwilling 
to believe that it is the foundation of the discourse which we shall hear in reply to our ob- 
servations. 

How, indeed ! Go to Mexico in arms, that is to develop American sentiment in Mexico ; 
to invade Mexico with the assistance of French, Spanish, or English troops ; that is giving 
up Mexico to America. That was the opinion of one of the colleagues of the minister, 
when, in 1849, in the discussion on the affairs of La Plata, M. Rouher said that it was in- 
expedient to undertake the expedition, because this expedition would only develop the 
American spirit which it was not our interest to develop. 

And the proof ; do you wish to have it ? You will find it in connexion with the course 
of argument which I have the honor to submit to you. The next day after that on which 
they are threatened by you, what steps do the Mexicans take ? in what direction do they 
turn their eyes ? to whom do they apply ? where is their refuge ? who is the man that be- 
comes that day the most important in the diplomatic corps? It is the representative of 
the United States. And when the government of President Juarez says to us, "I have 
just been installed yesterday ; I am without resources, without money ; I cannot satisfy 
your claims ; 1 cannot give you a dollar ; but I am going to borrow, I am going to borrow 
of the United States ; I will pledge to them a part of our territory ;" we must reply to it, 
" Your territory is pledged to us ; consequently we forbid you to hypothecate it in order to 
pay us." This argument, I am sure, ought to be appreciated by the minister as it de- 
serves ; it is an expedient of war and diplomacy ; but it is no less true, and it is the only 
truth which I would wish to set clearly before your eyes, that from the day when France 
assumes a threatening attitude to Mexico, that very day Mexico turns to the United 
States, and, so to speak, surrenders itself up to them. 

Consequently, let us lay aside this political scheme ; it dates from the day of the rupture 
of the conferences and the departure of the allies, and I much fear that the only end sought 
in this is the wish to redeem a blunder by an imaginary profundity of plan and scheme. 

There remains then, gentlemen, the political question on which you have, in my opin- 
ion, to exercise a great and legitimate interest. 

The question is submitted to you in the draught of an address , you hope that the war 
will have a happy and speedy termination. Who would not subscribe, gentlemen, to these 
expressions ? But at the same time we find them quite inoffensive ; that the war should 
have a happy and speedy termination, every one wishes that. But how should it finish ? 
what policy should we pursue in Mexico ? Should we, as the Spanish, who wish to resume 
the conferences, ask us, prepare ourselves for a temporary occupation ? Do you wish to 
inaugurate in Mexico, at the distance of 2,000 leagues from us, a new Algeria, which you 
will try to colonize while you prepare the senatus consultum which is to finish the coloniza- 
tion of the other Algeria, which you have for thirty years so little and so badly colo- 
nized ? Do you wish that the resources of France should be periodically and annually 
sent to aid the revolutions or the tumults of the Mexican agents who have duped you, and 
of whom you are only the followers in this policy of enterprise and adventure in which 
you have involved yourselves? Do you wish this? say so, at least; and in a question 



132 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

■which so momentarily concerns France, its policy, its destinies, its future, its finances, let 
us know what is in store for us ; let us not he doomed to find, some morning, on awaking, 
when we least expect it, declarations of war which we could not have foreseen, declara- 
tions of policy which we cannot accept. We are, in the end, the parties who give the 
money and who give the men ; it is to us that account must be rendered ; it is we who are 
to he consulted, and consequently, when a war of this nature is undertaken, we should 
know what end you propose to give it. 

So, gentlemen, this will doubtless be for the government an occasion to inform us about 
its external policy. What is it ? what does it seek to effect ? It seems to me that it has 
sought to apply, in its external relations, the principle which it applies so sorrowfully and 
so sadly in its internal policy, that of force, [vehement reprobation f\ that i6 to say, impo- 
tency itself. [Murmurs ] 

Has it succeeded in it ? And after so much blood spilled by our soldiers, let us see and 
let us see closely what is your influence in Europe. We are a great nation ; we know it 
well, and for this reason alone that you have the honor of governing us, you can speak 
loudly and speak fiimly. But are not your policy and your diplomacy strangely distanced 
by those of the neighboring powers ? When the throne of Greece becomes vacant who re- 
ceives the advantages of this vacancy ? To whom are the eyes turned ? Who are the can- 
didates that are proposed, and, above all, what are the institutions that are sought ? [To 
the question ! To Mexico !] 

You console yourselves by giving sad counsels to those in Prussia who desire resistance, 
and who give to the ministers of a king, perhaps blind, the detestable counsel not to 
yield to the will of the nation. [Murmurs] 

Yesterday you were at Turin for Turin ; to-day you are at Rome for Home [Murmurs ] 

M. the Baron Maiuani. Stay in Mexico, and speak of Mexico. 

M. Ernest Picabd. If this policy is an enigma we should have the clue to it. Tell us 
who you are; tell us what are your names. A year ago you appealed to the nationalities; 
then there was exultation through all Europe, and it seemed that France, under the impulse 
■of its government, was going to deliver the people. [Cries of no, no] Yesterday you heard 
the declaration of the minister ; you know how he treats the Polish nationality which ought 
;never perish. [Renewed murmurings.] 

I resume now, and assert, if you are for the principle of non-intervention you must ex- 
plain otherwise your war in Mexico. If, on the contrary, you are for the principle of in- 
tervention, you should not be in Mexico when you ought to be elsewhere. [Noises ] 

The President. M. David has the floor. 

Baron Jerome David. Gentlemen, I have been struck by one fact in the discourse which 
we have just heard ; it is that the Spanish, the English, and the Mexicans, everybody is 
right and France alone is wrong. [Thafs so ; good good.] I confess to you that my 
ieeliugs, that my national pride revolts at this idea. [Good, good.] 

I oppose the amendment which has just been defeuded by the honorable M. Picard. I 
oppose it, while acknowledging at the same time that the Mexican expedition has caused 
vehement excitement in the country. The distance, the nature of the obstacles, the fore- 
seen increase of the expenses, the uncertainty of the results, must have impressed and 
must yet impress painfully all those who are not deeply convinced of the imperious neces- 
sity of this expedition. The discussions kept up in a neighboring nation have not contrib- 
uted to the formation of an opinion favorable to the policy of the government towards 
Mexico. But, as I firmly approve this policy, I shall endeavor to lefute such views as can- 
not gain credit without injury to justice ami truth. [Good ] 

Gentlemen, have we need of the documents placed before our eyes to know that the in- 
sinuations contained in the amendment should not be accepted ; to know, according to the 
expressions mads use of by the honorable M. Picard, that the government can justify the 
• expedition which it has undertaken ; to know that the Emperor's government should have 
accepted the Mexican war without having sought it? 

Have we forgotten that a preceding government found itself, under the same circum- 
stances, obliged to demand by force the redress of these same grievances ? I shall not be 
wanting in the regard due to fallen dynasties, when I say that the government to whi< h 1 
allude did not usually permit itself to be carried away by exaggerated susceptibilities at a 
period of ultra pacific tendencies. In 183!) the address of the Chamber included these words: 

"The outrages and spoliations to which our countrymen have been subjected in Mex- 
ico demand an exemplary satisfaction, and your government should have required it. The 
Chamber hopes that it shall have taken prompt and decisive measures to obtaiu it." 

It was during the discussion of the same address that M Piscatory cried out : " France 
has descended from the rank which she occupied ; it is painful to me to say it, but I do 
say it, it is my duty and my right." We must not use such language under the empire. 

The government of July confined itself to half measures ; the blockade of 1888, the 
capture of San Juan de Ulloa, the descent upon Vera Cruz, did not, in any respect, remedy 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 133 

the state of affairs ; the actual government has been no less willing to push moderation to 
its utmost limits ; the treaty of 1853, the conciliatory mission of Admiral Penaud in 1858, 
the diplomatic proceedings anterior to the treaty of October 31, 1861 — are not all these un- 
deniable proofs of our patience ? 

What remained to be done ? Was it necessary to undertake by force of arms the repa- 
ration of our grievances? Should we have acted with inopportune timidity when there was 
question of the French honor ? Would the second of these ways suit my opponents ? In 
any case, I maintain that the first was tbe only one which becomes the Imperial govern- 
ment. 

Gentlemen, our grievances against Mexico have been strangely slurred over by tactics 
habitual with parties. Some of these grievances have been omitted ; the most serious have 
been thrown into the back-ground ; the least striking have been discussed at length, so as 
to lose sight of the gravity of the situation, resulting from their being seen altogether. 
[Good ; that's so.] 

We have in Mexico, not 3,000, but more than 8,000 fellow-countrymen. Among them, 
several have been the victims of assassination, of robberies, of spoliations of all kinds. 
They have had to bear forced loans, military contributions, sometimes amounting to 5 per 
cent, of their capital. French commerce has been capriciously subjected to ruinous and 
abusive duties of importation and exportation. Finally, all these misdeeds have been fol- 
lowed by the rupture of solemn engagements guaranteed by diplomatic conventions. To 
remain quiet would be truly to show oneself quite regardless of national honor, unless, in- 
deed, a person regulates his susceptibility according to the dangers of the case, or supposes 
the flag of France too small to extend its protecting folds to the shores of the New World. 
[Good, good.] 

There are not many members in this assembly disposed to think that we ought to bear 
these injuries in silence or content ourselves with showing our indignation by an ineffect- 
ual military manifestation. After having taken up arms we cannot lay them down, we 
will not lay them down, but with the certitude that we will not have to recommence pe- 
riodically a murderous and expensive campaign. So we will not let our most legitimate 
rights, I will say even our duties, be obscured in the confusion of words or ideas. We will 
justly interfere in the internal affairs of Mexico as often as our interests shall there be in- 
volved to a momentous extent ; we will assign to them the place which is acquired for them 
by our efforts and by our sacrifices ; we are bound by the very fact of our expedition to 
treat only with a government offering serious guarantees for the future ; and if it is not 
granted to us to influence the Mexicans in the choice of their government, it will be incum- 
bent upon us to inquire whether that government promises efficacious protection to the 
life, to the property of our countrymen, and a sure fulfilment of stipulated engagements. 

Let us examine from this point of view the actual government of Mexico, that govern- 
ment recently defined in the following terms in the tribune of the Spanish Senate by the 
president of the counsel of the Queen's ministers. "In Mexico there is nothing but pro- 
scription of the vanquished and established anarchy in government." 

The democratic, federalist party, the party of the puros, to which M. Juarez belongs, 
after having figured with various chances in all the troubles that have agitated Mexico since 
its independence, finally attained to power by the fall of Santa Ana, in the month of Au- 
gust, 1855 ; it maintained itself until the insurrection at Mexico, which overthrew Presi- 
dent Comonfort in the beginning of 1858. M. Juarez, constitutional vice-president at that 
period, established himself at Vera Cruz, whence he kept up a contest, terminated by his 
attainment to power in January, 1861, after the defeat of the government at Mexico, 
under Miramon. 

The history of Mexico remains, during these last years, what it was previously ; individ- 
uals more or Jess audacious, causing themselves to be followed by some thousands of sol- 
diers, proclaimed a plan, a system of government. 

The principles of conservatism or progression formed the basis of these proclamations. 
The chiefs of each of the belligerent parties adjudged to themselves the commission of 
saving the nation. Meanwhile they levied imposts, extorted money from foreigners, h) 
fested the highways, pillaged the churches, devastated the country. So far did it go, gen 
tlemen — and what I am going to say belongs to history — so far did it go, that, in the course 
of the year 1858 alone, there occurred in Mexico eight regular battles, twenty-four serious 
combats, thirty-nine secondary encounters — in all seventy-one engagements. 

Therefore you will vainly seek there for roads, for canals, for works of art ; you would 
look in vain for the slightest notion of political or social economy. Exorbitant tariffs im- 
poverish the receipts of the government by exciting a contraband trade along the open 
frontier of 500 leagues which separates the United States from Mexico. There is every- 
where, in Mexico, folly, disorder, want of security for strangers. To discover the least 
vestiges of civilization we must go back to the epoch of the empire of Montezuma, which 



134 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

has given place only to the tyrannical monopoly of Spain or the disastrous convulsions of 
the Spanish American republics. 

In Mexico there are eight millions of inhabitants separated by difference of race, of 
manners, and of language, who know no other equality than that of oppression by ambi- 
tious upstarts who found their private fortunts on the ruin and degradation of the nation. 

For the rest, I grant you, conservatives, democrats, federalists, pUros, are all equivalent, 
[approbative laughter,] all pursue the same line of conduct ; it is an incontestable fact. 
However, I may be permitted to state that there is a striking distinction between the con- 
servatives and the progressionists, the puros, to whom M. Juarez belongs ; it is that the 
conservatives have a patiiotic shame entirely unknown to M. Juarez and his friends. 

However strange this assertion may appear, it is confirmed by facts. The separation of 
Texas, its admission into the American Union, the cession of Upper California and New 
Mexico, were accomplished only after memorable battles sustained by the Mexican army 
under the orders of the conservative General Santa Anna. The conservative General Mir- 
amon, of whom mention was made a while ago, found in his patriotism, at the moment 
of greatest trial in 1860, the energy to protest agaiost the odious McLane treaty, sub- 
scribed by M. Juarez and his friends, a treaty which placed all Mexico in the hands of the 
United States. 

The compliance of M. Juarez was not useless to him. The following year the American 
Captain Jarvis, commanding the man-of-war Saratoga, took part with M. Juarez by forci- 
bly seizing on two Mexican vessels which were carrying from Havana arms and munitions 
of war for the army of operation which was besieging Vera Cruz. It is, then, to M. Juarez 
and his friends and party that we should first apply the reproof justly incurred by citizens 
relying upon foreign assistance. It was also M. Juarez who in 1861 wished to borrow ten 
millions of dollars from the United States, by delivering to them the province of Sonora 
and other parts of the Mexican territory. Such acts call our attention to the consistency 
of Mexico, to the morality of the means employed by M. Juarez, in whose cause it is now 
sought to raise the prestige attaching to the defence of one's native land. 

M. Juarez applied to the United States for money. Let us see their opinion with re- 
gard to Mexico, and then we will be forced to recognize that to borrow money of the 
United States is to sell Mexico to the United States. 

President Buchanan said in his message of 185S: " Mexico has been in a constant state 
of revolution almost since the moment when it conquered its independence. Military 
chiefs, one after another, have usurped the government in rapid succession. The differ- 
ent constitutions, adopted at different periods, have been reduced to nullity almost as soon 
as proclaimed. The successive governments have been unable to afford effectual protection 
either to Mexican citizens or resident foreigners against violence and illegality." 

We read further on : "The truth is, that this beautiful country, blessed with a produc- 
tive soil and a beneficent climate, finds itself reduced by civil dissensions to a condition of 
anarchy and impotence almost irremediable." 

Then the message asks that the government of the United States should assume a tem- 
porary protectorate over the northern parts of the States of Chihuahua and Sonora by es- 
tablishing military posts there. Is this significant enough? President Buchanan submits 
to Congiess the suitableness of establishing military posts, without even regarding the con- 
sent of Mexico 

Mr. Buchanan says also in his message of 1859 : " Is it possible that Mexico must be 
abandoned to anarchy and ruin without an effort to deliver and save her ? Will the com- 
mercial nations of the world who have so many interests involved in Mexico remain indif- 
ferent to this result ? The United States especially, which should have the greatest num- 
ber of commercial relations with Mexico — will they permit this neighboring state to ruin 
and destroy itself? Without aid Mexico cannot resume its position among the nations, 
nor enter upon a career fruitful in good results. Every American citizen must be deeply 
moved at this. A government which cannot or will not repress such disorders deserts its 
duty." 

Finally, we read further on: "Mexico is a ship drifting with the current of the ocean 
and governed only by the passions of opposing parties that dispute the government with 
one another." 

Behold thi' judgment of the President of a republic. It is not out of place to contrast it 
with the opinions of our honorable opponents. 

The messages quoted show that the United States, after having already conquered the 
third part of Mexico, would not be slow to seize upon the rest. Their policy in the New 
World was well settled. They wished to remove Spain from her ancient colonies under 
the pretext that the island of Cuba, by its geographical position, commands the mouth of 
the Mississippi, one of the principal arteries of their commerce. They sought to purchase 
it with thirty millions of dollars. Their attitude towards the Spanish American republics 
was that of expectation. Persuaded that these republics would be absorbed by the Arner- 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 135 

ican Union, they commenced, by means of treaties, to assure to themselves the transit over 
the most suitable points for the connexion of the two oceans. The bases of these treaties 
were successively enlarged. They asked the establishment of neutral ports at the extremi- 
ties of the lines of transit. Then they claimed the abolishment of all custom-house duties 
on American merchandise, and authority to transmit troops and munitions of war. Finally, 
they specified the grant to the United States of the right to assure by force the security of 
the transit, which thus made them masters of the great routes of commerce. 

Behold the whole diplomatic history of the United States with the rest of the New World. 
The success has been complete as far as concerns the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. As to the 
republics of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and New Granada, they yet oppose these pretensions 
with the assistance of England, which likewise showed itself at the time of the invasion of 
Central America by the Anglo-American adventurer Walker. Nevertheless, the opposition 
was drawing to a close, when civil war surprised the United States in the full career of the 
application of the celebrated doctrine of President Monroe— of that doctrine which declared 
that all the States of America have devolved on the Anglo-Americans, whose duty it is to 
oppose in every manner the interference of Europe in the affairs of the New World. 

Gentlemen, the projects of the Anglo-Americans would not have failed to be soon 
realized, whilst placing Europe in a condition of inferiority, of which the dangers fully 
manifest themselves. However, the European powers that signed the treaty of October 
31, 1861, now follow a different system in their policy towards Mexico. France has loyally 
persevered in the line of conduct originally traced out by common consent. 

Let me be permitted, gentlemen, to show forth this truth whilst throwing into the back- 
ground the accessory facts to which, in my opinion, too much importance has been attached 
in other discussions on the same subject ; I shall very succinctly place in relief the principal 
points of the alliance of the three powers. 

I select a primary point which serves as a basis for the treaty of October 31 — that is, the 
overthrow of M. Juarez and his government. The maintenance of M. Juarez was recog- 
nized as incompatible with the end specified in the preamble of the treaty, namely, the 
effectual protection of persons and property, and the execution of stipulated engagements 
with the three powers contracting. 

Whatever interpretation it may be sought to give to M. Thouvenel's despatch of October 
11, 1861, addressed to our ambassador at London, after a conversation with Lord Cowley, 
we are forced to recognize that, twenty days before the signing of the treaty, England 
admitted a priori, as well as we did, the fall of M. Juarez and his government ; the diversity 
of opinion concerned only the greater or less influence that was to be exercised on the form 
of the government that was to replace it. 

As to Spain, she declared herself still more clearly ; the Queen's minister of state wrote 
to M. Mon, ambassador to Paris, September 7, fifty-three days before the treaty of October 
31: "If England and France agree to act in accord with Spain, the forces of the three 
powers will unite, as well to obtain reparation for outrages as to establish a regular and 
stable order of things in Mexico." On the 8th of October— that is to say, twenty-three 
days before the treaty of October 31— the minister of the Queen of Spain wrote again to M. 
Mon : "Far from renouncing its projects, (the action in common of Spain, France, and 
England,) the Spanish government is more persuaded every day that the accord of the three 
governments, in procuring satisfaction for offences received and the reparation of all injuries, 
will contribute more or less directly to create in Mexico a regular and settled state of 
affairs, which will permit the establishment of a government affording security and repose 
to the unfortunate people of that country, and guarantees for the interests and the lives of 
strangers." 

These two despatches, gentlemen, are explicit ; they speak of the establishment, of the 
creation, of a new order of things ; this is the sense of article 11 of the treaty of October 31. 

The high contracting parties engage not to exert in the internal affairs of Mexico any 
influence of such a nature as to attack the right of the Mexican nation to choose and to 
constitute freely the form of its government. 

Does not this paragraph place beyond discussion, beyond doubt, the overthrow of the 
existing government in order to choose and constitute a new one ? 

I come to establish a second important point— that is, that the three powers had admitted 
the eventuality of a march to Mexico. England had declared from the beginning that her 
assistance should be limited to a display of maritime forces ; but Spain, who sent the 
strongest contingent of forces for disembarkation, recognized, from the 6th of November, 
that it was possible that there might be occasion to march upon Mexico. Here is the 
despatch of the ambassador of France at Madrid, addressed on the 6th of November to our 
minister of foreign affairs : 

" Monsieur le Ministre : As I have had the honor to make known to your excellency 
this morning by telegraph, I have communicated to Marshal 0' Donnell and M. Calderon 
Collantes the desire expressed by your excellency that instructions should be given to the 



136 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

commanders-in-chief of the Spanish and French forces in Mexico, in order that these com- 
manders may, if the circumstances appear favorable to them, march upon Mexico. 

'■The Duke of Tetuan agreed, without hesitation, to the opinion of the Emperor's 
goTernment ; he declared to me and authorized me to say, that very elastic, discretionary 
instructions would be given to the'cornmander of the Spanish forces, and that he would 
moreover send him a private letter, signed by himself, authorizing him to act, if the case 
should occur in the sense of the eventual measures indicated by your excellency's despatch. 

"At the close of a conversation which I had on the same subject with M. Calderon 
Collantes, the first secretary of state has authorized me to inform you that his opinion was 
conformable in every respect to that expressed by Marshal O'Donnell, and to confirm in 
his name the engagement entered into with me by the president of the council." 

The treaty of October 31 specifies precisely the results to be attained, but in no respect 
limits the course of military operations ; on the contrary, it says, " That the commanders 
of the allied forces are authorized to accomplish the operations which shall be judged, on 
the spot, the most suitable to realize the end specified in the preamble of the treaty." The 
treaty said no more, because the hope was cherished that it would suffice to seize and occupy 
the different fortresses and military positions of the coast, to decide the people to shake off 
the yoke under which they groaned. 

M. Calderon Collantes, minister of foreign affairs, had said, in the commencement of 
October, 1861, to M. Barrot, our ambassador, "That, in his opinion, the active employ- 
ment of the allied forces would be useless, and that their moral action would suffice." 
That was calculating too much on the spontaneous energy of populations prostrated by 
forty years of continual discord. 

I resume, gentlemen, the consideration of the meaning and purpose of the treaty of 
October 31. 

Spain and England appeared resolved, as well as we did, to overturn the government of 
M. Juarez, recognized as incompatible with the results to be attained by them in common. 
From the moment that the capture of San Juan de Ulloa and the occupation of Vera Cruz 
failed to produce the desired effects, it was necessary to march onward without waiting till 
the void should be formed around us, to remove from the warm country, to penetrate into 
the more favorable and more salubrious regions, to await re-enforcements if they should be 
necessary, and to plant the allied banners on the walls of Mexico. 

The secondary, veiy secondary incidents of the exaggerated claims of M. Dubois de 
Saligny on the subject of the Jecker debt, to protection given to General Almonte, the 
hypothesis of a monarchial regime with an archduke of Austria, cannot be called up in good 
faith to explain the abandonment of which we have been the object ; for they weakened 
in no respect the principal object of the enterprise. [Good ] 

This abandonment was decided upon at the moment when, instead of acting, they par- 
leyed ; from the moment when, instead of striking the government of M. Juarez, they 
strengthened it, they gave it by negotiations tbe moral force that was wanting to it. Our 
plenipotentiaries have, perhaps, failed in energy, but the government has remained firm 
in the line of conduct which it had traced out and which it wished to pursue. As to our 
plenipotentiaries, we must take into account the restricted means which they had at their 
disposal in the beginning. Whence comes it. then, that England and Spain have with- 
drawn from an enterprise conducted conformably to the preliminary understanding of the 
three powers ? I shall try to treat this delicate question — I shall treat it, if not with talent, 
at least patriotically, [good, J and I hope to show that France can say she has persevered 
loyally in the line of conduct which she has traced for herself. I shall treat this question 
with all the regard due to friendly nations, and at the same time with the frankness 
becoming our lawful rights. 

Before betaking myself to this examination, I shall call attention to the general situation 
of the New World, in order to show clearly the conflicting interests in Mexico. It is one 
of those questions which becomes obscured when viewed in their petty details, but which, 
on the contrary, become clear and rise to their true height when they are placed on their 
proper level. 

Passing from the frontiers of the United States to the extremities of South America you 
will meet only the former Spanish colonies, with the exception of Guiana and Brazil. Since 
their liberation, which belongs to the history of another age, these colonics have generally 
been given up to internal dissensions, excited in the name ot federalism or of centralization. 
When a European nation interferes in the affairs of one of these republics, all the rest are 
thereby thrown into a profound excitement. 

The idea of Bolivar, the liberator of South America, was that all these republics should 
be united in a treaty of defi osive union ; and so it was that in 1856 a treaty of alliance 
was concluded at Santiago, in Chili, between the representatives of l J eru, Chili, and Ecuador, 
In the course of the years 185(i, 1857, 185S, this treaty was submitted to the approbation 
of the republics of Central America, of Venezuela, and of New Granada. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 137 

In 1861, the President of Peru took the initiative in a treaty of alliance between all the 
American governments in order to resist all action on the part of Europe in the affairs of 
the New World. This treaty of alliance included the following significant phrase : "To 
attack the independence of one of the Spanish American republics is to wound that of all." 
In 1862, a deputy of Chili, M. Artega Aleamparte, asked his government, in open assembly, 
to take part against us. M. Leoane, minister from Peru to La Plata, strove to rouse the 
national feelings of the States of the Argentine Confederation, of Paraguay, and of the 
Oriental State ; he appears to have failed in that part of his mission which consisted in 
obtaining effective measures. All these republics are too much embarrassed with their own 
affairs to seek for external complications. 

Gentlemen, I desired to deduce from these facts that the question in debate in Mexico 
is not merely a Mexican question, but one which concerns the interests of France and of 
Europe in all the New World. Circumstances have brought us to undertake an expedition 
to Mexico, when it was necessary to show that we would support our countrymen in all 
regions where they might happen to be. [Good, good.] 

After these preliminary explanations, let us examine, gentlemen, the conduct of the three 
powers. 

England considerably surpasses other powers in her commercial relations with the New 
World ; even the commercial relations of the United States are behind hers. The posses- 
sions of Belize, in the bay of Honduras, permit her to profit by the commercial transactions 
of the rich Mexican provinces of Yucatan and Tabasco, and to explore Central America ; 
she has often even interfered in the events that have agitated those countries. Hence arose 
serious and frequent difficulties with the United States, of which difficulties the Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty is the best testimony. The English policy, like the American policy, has 
persistently striven to prevent the probable pretensions of Spain over her former colonies, 
in order not to see them rescued from the state of commercial and industrial infancy in 
which they languish in order not to lose a market. It appears evidently, from the recent 
discussions in the Spanish Cortes, that England decided upon the Mexican expedition solely 
to prevent Spain trom undertaking it alone. The English policy, so justly styled a policy 
of material interests by the Marquis of Havana, ex-ambassador from Spain to Paris, had 
especially tended to participate but feebly in the expedition so as to disengage itself from 
the treaty of October 31 on the first occasion, whilst causing Spain to follow her example. 
This occasion the English plenipotentiary, Sir Charles Wyke, undertook to bring about by 
shuffling the cards— pardon me the expression — on minor points of detail, so as to treat 
separately with M. Juarez, whom they were to overturn. 

As Spain took sides with England the expedition ran a chance of miscarrying, whilst 
leaving to Great Britain the merit of having removed the arms of the European powers 
from Mexico— a thing which could not fail to cause a deep sensation in America ; a thing 
which could not but consolidate her influence ; a thing which could not but extend her 
relations of importation and exportation and benefit her commerce. We have defeated 
these calculations by a perseverance which was not counted on. That was forgotten which 
causes our superiority, and perhaps our isolation, namely, that we subordinate our profits 
and our advantages to the principles of civilization and of morality, which are the marks 
of greatness of the times. [Applause.] 

English diplomacy shows itself less accommodating than it was in Mexico, when it is 
alone in the case. In 1856 a cams belli was made with New Granada on account of a delay 
in the payment of some millions to an English creditor, Mr. Mackintosh. In 1859, in 
consequence of the detention at Assumption of an English subject, Mr. Canstalt, an English 
vessel, without any previous declaration of war, gave chase in the river La Plata to a Para- 
guayan vessel, the Tamari, which had on board the son of the President of Paraguay ; M. 
Lopez had to return to Buenos Ayres in all haste and proceed to Assumption by way of land. 
I do not ambition for my country the policy of England, however lucrative it may be. 
[Good, good.] We must, however, acknowledge that, in the Mexican question, it has 
shown itself skilful enough to escape officially the charge of disloyalty. [Sensation.] 

As to Spain, gentlemen, her grievances had an exceptional importance ; her resolution 
to have recourse to arms was anterior to ours ; her military contingent was stronger, her 
army was commanded by a brilliant general, well known by numerous deeds of war. These 
different reasons explain the position assigned to Spain in the beginning of the expedition. 
I shall not go back to the treaty of La Soledad ; its clauses are well known to you. ^ I 
shall say only that they are a symptom of the hesitancy of General Prim, a hesitancy which 
should be deemed merely transitory, to judge from his correspondence of March 20 and 21, 
1862. The chief of the Spanish expedition said that he wished even to burn his vessels in 
order to march as a soldier ; his warlike humor reawoke in presence of the fresh injuries 
committed by the Mexican government, and twenty-four hours afterwards Admiral Juxien 
de la Graviere received intimation that General Prim was embarking his troops. 

We had never been expelled from the New World after a series of reverses once cele- 



138 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

brated ; we never had our standards suspended in testimony of defeat under the vaults of 
the cathedral of Mexico ; the violences exercised against the French arose from the gene- 
ral disorder, and not at all from national hatred ; our ambassador had never been expelled 
from Mexico, and yet we have remained faithful to our alliance, whilst the Spanish army 
set sail, abandoning us to a contest with an enemy numerically much superior ; abandoning 
us to a struggle with the calamities of war, under an inexorable climate, during the worst 
season of the year. [Applause ] 

Surely, if the Spanish army had not been already tried, if General Prim had not been 
renowned for his personal bravery, the retreat of the Spanish troops would be very much 
like a flight from danger. This supposition is inadmissible. I think we must search in 
another order of ideas for the origin of the facts. General Prim could not resist the illu- 
sions, the seductions, that have dazzled all the representatives of Spain charged to repress 
by force the excesses of the Spanish American republics. In 1856, after the sequestration 
of Spanish property by President Comonfort, an imposing fleet, having on board S'r de los 
Santos Alvarez, minister from Spain, appeared before Vera Cruz, to retire at the end of 
some days without having done anything and without having obtained anything. In 1860, 
after the massacre of some hundred Spaniards in Venezuela, some Spanish vessels again 
appeared. After remaining some time before La Guayra they retired, without having 
obtained the least satisfaction from the cabinet of Caraccas. General Prim shows, for the 
third time, a Spanish plenipotentiary failing to carry out the instructions of his govern- 
ment, in order to make more noise than work. [Good, good.] 

Gentlemen, all the representatives of Spain that arrive in the New World are seized with 
a veritable fever of national ambition. The official language, the men who direct affairs, 
the manners of the population of the towns, the religious practices, the traditions, the in- 
scriptions on the monuments, everything recalls to them the Spanish dominion ; then they 
say to themselves that Spain might reanimate, might easily revive the elements of pros- 
perity now hidden behind the anarchy of the moment, provided she raises no new barriers 
between herself and her former colonies by a recourse to violent measures This illusion 
is easily worked up by the crafty diplomacy of the natives and Creoles of America. Have 
things happened this time also in the same style in Mexico? Everything induces us to 
believe so. 

Spain, thanks to the measures of France, now figures, in the European system, in the 
ranks of the great powers ; thanks, also, to the wisdbm of her statesmen, she has, for 
some years past, taken a truly remarkable flight ; her preponderance in the New World 
would give her an iclat surpassing the days of her greatest splendor. Could Spain realize 
this grand idea she would be worthy of the gratitude, of the admiration of her citizens. 
But successes of this kind disdain egotism and chicanery ; nations that pursue such objects 
should commence by raising their banners from the degradation into which the reverses of 
other times have thrown them. The confidence and the esteem of nations are accorded 
only to loyalty and the moral strength of nations. So we are permitted to doubt whether 
the commander-in-chief of the .Spanish expedition, whatever may have been his intentions, 
has served his country well in withdrawing after the example of England. 

For the rest, we need not regret too bitterly the withdrawal of Spain in an enterprise in 
which she had the honor of marching by our side ; we will prove but once the more that, 
to have justice done us, we can do without allies. We have gone to Mexico under the 
impulse of necessity ; we will stay there under the impulse of duty and fidelity to the end 
set in view. Our allies have acted differently ; that is a matter that concerns them ; in 
such cases, on each one be the responsibility of his own acts. 

The honorable M. Picard asks, What is the end pursued by the government ? Gentlemen, 
I am not in the secrets of the government; I cannot, therefore, answer him absolutely; 
but it is, however, an end which appears evident to me ; which can be immediately under- 
stood, provided we examine it without passion, without prejudice ; provided we examine 
with precision the state of affairs. We desire, and the treaty of October 31 says so clearly— 
we desire security for persons and property, with a stable and regular government ; we 
shall soon be enabled in Mexico to second such measures as will answer this programme. 
How long shall we stay there? How long shall we figure in the ulterior events of Mexico ? 
In this respect I cannot unite my wishes with those expressed in the address. For questions 
of this nature previsions and precise replies are difficult. In any war whatever the future 
belongs to the unforeseen. All that can be said at present, all that can be said for certain, 
is, that the difficulties which we will have to conquer will be slight beside the difficulties 
already surmounted by our army and navy with a degree of self-denial and courage above 
all praise. [Good, good.] Our fleet will no longer be stationed along the coast; the 
means of transportation are being organized ; a railroad will shorten the distance through 
the hot country ; our troops are encamped in the more salubrious regions ; all arms of the 
service will rival each other in emulation and zeal, and, without any doubt, our soldiers 
will soon be in Mexico. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 139 

Gentlemen, there is an idea cherished with much complacency when it is desired to off<_ r 
opposition to the Emperor's government. They say, "But when you are at Mexico will 
you be any further advanced ? " It is enough to have studied, to have read the history of 
the transactions of Mexico for the last forty years to know, in an incontestable manner, 
that the occupation of Mexico, Puebla, and the seaports will comprise the whole of Mexico ; 
there will be partial resistance here and there, which will cease of itself for want of means 
of propagation. The city of Mexico is the point of union where all the elements of Mexi- 
can vitality are concentrated ; it is the capital and the heart of the nation ; and surely it 
cannot be seriously said that once at Mexico we will not be further advanced than at the 
setting out of the expedition. At the city of Mexico we will serve as a rallying point for 
the reaction of the masses against the upholders of disorder. Our presence at Mexico will 
be an energetic and salutary act of repression ; it will be felt throughout the whole of the 
New World. Our maritime commerce, assured of protection, will multiply its operations 
in America to the great advantage of international intercourse and commercial develop- 
ment. Our emigrants will carry with confidence the genius of the nation into the wilder- 
ness of the New World ; there will be an outlet for those ardent and disconteuted imagi- 
nations that now turn their eyes towards the era of revolutions. 

Gentlemen, what I say may be criticised ; my words may be deemed quite poetical, but 
utterly void of the reality ; it may be pretended that I place myself in a world of chimeras. 
Will not these assertions be refuted by considering, for example, that the Argentine Con- 
federation, that country so rich in products of all sorts, has, for a territory of 200,000 
square leagues, only 800,000 inhabitants, or four persons to the square league, whilst in 
France there are 1,100. And this is also the case in Mexico, in Central America, and in 
all the old Spanish colonies of the continent ; everywhere there is an enormous dispropor- 
tion between the extent of territory and the amount of population. How does it happen 
that the population does not increase ? It is because there is no security. Adventurers, 
and even honorable men, can repair to these distant countries, but commercial enterprises 
recoil before such innumerable apprehensions. Is it not a prudent and generous under- 
taking to restore to native production and commercial activity an important part of the 
globe, of which at present the richness remains in a state of absolute sterility? 

Now, if we consider the question in a purely real point of view, for at that I aim, there 
is not one European power that has not been injured in its relations with the Spanish 
American republics. To cite but one instance, which has reference to the people whom I 
have the honor to represent : A few years ago a Girondist emigration was attracted to 
Paraguay to establish a colony there, which was called New Bordeaux. Not one of the 
engagements entered into by the president of that state were kept, and after some months' 
residence most of our countrymen died, after tribulations of every kind. Others took refuge 
in Buenos Ay res. 

In America, in La Plata especially, our diplomatic agents, have continual discords and 
quarrels on account of serious and numerous claims against the local governments. 

There are more than 100,000 Frenchmen scattered through the Spanish American repub- 
lics. Before the Mexican expedition, it might be thought that we abandoned all influence 
beyond a certain circle; that we knew not how to afford to our countrymen any other 
assistance than that of protocols. When an English subject is touched, the blow that 
strikes him resounds throughout all England. Shall we permit it to be supposed that we 
are lallen into lethargy ? Shall we let it be supposed that we are incapable of protecting 
our own ? 

Truly it is too easy to spread alarm and false suggestions among a public not always 
correctly informed as to the state of affairs ; truly it is too easy to enumerate the rough 
labors of our soldiers and sailors whilst attacking the spirit of system or adventure which 
has caused them. When facts are thus distorted, when this manner is adopted, why not 
have the courage to bo logical to the end ? Why not have the boldness to say that they 
are satisfied with a restricted influence for their country on the European continent ; that 
beyond this our countrymen should seek assistance under other flags, [noise,] like those 
eastern vessels, which shelter their fortunes and their heads under foreign protectorates? 
[Good, good.] If we reject this degradation and disgrace we must proclaim the Mexican 
expedition so much the more meritorious by how much the more arduous and difficult it 
is. Our worthy army, too, must be sustained in the midst of its severe trials by the con- 
sciousness that we are usefully defending the honor and the interests of France. [Good.] 
Our soldiers and our sailors, so admirable and so devoted, should have faith in their work ; 
and in fine, those among them who fall in those distant regions should know well that 
they sleep in glorious death in serving the cause of humanity, of right, and of civilization. 
[Good, good.] 

(The speaker was congratulated by many of his friends.) 

The President. Does the Chamber desire some minutes of repose ? [Cries of "Yes, yes."] 



140 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

[The session is suspended for twenty minutas. It is resumed at a quarter before five 
o'clock.] 

The President. Does any one of the authors of the amendment desire the floor to reply 
to M. David ? 

M. Jules Favre. Mr. President, I should have desired to reply to the minister. 

A member. The minister will reply to you. 

M. Jules Favre. My intention was to spare the time of the Chamber. It is well known 
that I am at its disposal ; if it desires me to reply to the honorable M. David — [cries of 
"Yes, yes; speak."] 

Gentlemen, the remarkable speech which you have just heard causes hi n who is charged 
with the honor of replying to it to experience an embarrassment which I can explain in 
a few words. I am not commissioned to defend that which has been attacked by the hon- 
orable M. David, and he does not appear to me to have justified that which was criticised 
by my honorable friend, M. Picard. Grant that the government of Juarez has to reproach 
itself with serious wrongs; that it is by no means popular in Mexico ; that England has 
been, as opposed to us, haughty and perfidious ; that Spain, our ally, has broken the 
treaty which united her with us — all these things, gentlemen, have, in the discussion in which 
we are now engaged, only a secondary importance. 

I will say as much, and perhaps still more justly, of the brilliant considerations which I 
have remarked in the speech of our honorable colleague. His generous spirit has encoun- 
tered no difficulty, no limit ; and, if we believe him, France would have for her mission 
to spread everywhere the lights and benefits of civilization ; to substitute order for anarchy ; 
to plant the principles of morality and self-respect wherever they are badly known; and to 
accomplish this glorious work she should regard neither the treasures which flow from her 
liberal hand, nor the blood of her children which she sacrifices. This generous programme 
has the inconvenience of strangely involving the policy which our interests and our strength 
order us to restrain; and it is not to open outlets for human activity; it is not even to per- 
mit those diseased aud impotent imaginations, of which M. David just spoke, to go and 
seek under eastern skies for realities which they have dreamed, that our soldiers can be 
engaged and our treasures spent. 

Moreover, gentlemen, I may be allowed to add that all these things could have found a 
more suitable place in the discussion of last year. If the Chamber had heard them then, 
it would have known to what it engaged itself; it could have, with full knowledge of the 
question, followed the honorable M. David in those brilliant and distant expeditions, or else 
stopped short with those who advised it to reserve its treasures for cases exclusively per- 
sonal to us And the language then held by the minister very little resembles that which 
we now find in the mouth of the honorable M. David. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to refer back to that, for there is the real question. We have 
to ask ourselves how and why the expedition has been undertaken ; how it seems to have 
deflected from its primitive design, and how it may be terminated ; a!l which questions, I 
need not say, in the highest degree concern the future, the honor, and the morality of 
France. At the moment in which I am speaking, gentlemen, there are very few families 
that are not uneasy in consequence of this war — glorious undoubtedly, but already disas- 
trous, and yet so obscure. 

It is becoming, then, in the means of control that belongs to it, that the legislative body 
should be able to clear up that which is yet confused, and it is for this reason that I entreat 
you to have the kindness to hear me for a few minutes. 

Well, without repeating the details given to you by my honorable confrere, M. Picard, 
[laughter,] I wished to say, my colleague, I hope the Chamber will excuse my mistake ; I 
made use of a softer word than I am in the habit of employing. [" Tes, yes." " Go on, 
go on."] I was saying that it would be rash for me to repeat all the details given to you 
by my honorable colleague, Blaster Picard. [General hilarity.] I have need, gentlemen, 
that your indulgence should be on a level with my weakness. [" Go on, go on."] I ask 
your pardon for these failings. ["No, no" "Go on."] 

The honorable M. Picard has explained to you in what circumstances the treaty of Lon- 
don was signed, and on this point I might grant to our honorable colleague, M. David, all 
that he has said eel itively to the outrages of which our countrymen have been the object. 
In this respect it is a matter of public notoriety throughout the entire world that Spanish 
America is unhappily given up to a sort of chronic anarchy. 

Mexico, on this point, is not an exception to the evil ; and if we examine its neighbors 
in Bolivia, in the Argentine republics, we will meet examples in every respect analogous. 
That France should protect these who Buffered thus ; that she should interfere diplomati- 
cally—by arms, even, if it was necessary — no one would contest, and when the houorable 
M.David recalled certain discussions entered into under the monarchy of July, the military 
enterprises to which it resigned itself, in spite perhaps of its too pacific tendency, the hon- 
orable M. David showed us an evil on which every one is agreed, and which it was urgently 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 141 

sought to heal. Only all exaggerations should have been avoided. Now, permit me to 
say that no serious explanation has yet been rendered. For if the despatches of our charge 
d'affaires have brought to our notice instances of violence to property and person, the rep- 
resentatives of friendly powers have replied that these violences were the consequence of 
a state of things engendered by the civil war ; that all the successive governments should 
be accused of them, and the responsibility not made to fall exclusively on M. Juarez. 

And in fact, gentlemen, it has been told you General Miramon, his lieutenant, Marquez, 
and others whom it is useless to mention, had all successively occupied the presidential 
chair, and the civil war was awhile ago related to you in energetic terms by the honorable 
speaker to whom I reply ; and it is during the phases of this civil war that our country- 
men have had most to suffer; for what is most remarkable is, that if the claims which have 
been addressed to the government date from to-day, their causes go back to yesterday, that 
is, to a period when Juarez was not yet established in the city of Mexico. 

I have said that I did not wish to repeat what has been already shown ; nevertheless, I 
must remark that Juarez belonged to the civil order. He was a lawyer ; he afterwards be- 
came a magistrate. He was president of the supreme court at the moment when the suf- 
frages of his fellow-citizens called him to the presidency. His election wasopposed by force ; 
he was compelled to fly ; and after long wanderings in the United States, he came to seek 
refuge at Vera Cruz, where hi authority was recognized. It was not till towards the end 
of the year 1861, in the last days of December, that — the power of Miramon having 
crumbled away — Juarez proceeded to occupy at Mexico the place that had been regularly 
assigned to him by the usual method of constitutional institutions. 

And it is at the moment when Juarez proceeds to take his seat that all the reclamations 
are addressed to him, of which the charge - d'affaires of France has spoken ; and he is yet 
exposed to all the horrors of civil war, which the capture of Mexico has been unable to 
stop ; he struggles amid the convulsions of a violent state. It is at this moment that we 
6end in our complaints, and that Spain and England join in our quarrel. 

Hitherto the attitude of France is irreproachable. They cannot reproach her with hav- 
ing too lightly received the information given to her by her agents who engage her to hold 
herself in a state of distrust. But what is important, and what certainly will have its in- 
fluence with you, is, that the two great powers that acted in concert with us had the same 
interests that we had. No one, indeed, has dared to maintain that in the different acts of 
violence committed in Mexico there have been any specially directed against the French. 
If our national colony in Mexico is important, which I acknowledge, the English and 
the Spanish have establishments there no less considerable. 

Indeed, our honorable colleague, M. David, just awhile ago told you what vigor, what 
vigilance, England usually displayed in the protection of her subjects. It is, then, gen- 
tlemen, for the sole purpose of protecting them that the three powers form an agreements — 
that they wish to form an expedition against Mexico, and obtain by main force respect for 
treaties hitherto most outrageously violated. 

I acknowledge, gentlemen, that at this moment there was presented to the minds of the 
negotiators a hypothesis, which I have the right to qualify now as a chimera, which has 
sprung from the brain of some exiles, and which probably has been the cause of all the 
evil. This hypothesis was the following : that the government of Juarez was as unpopu- 
lar as frail ; as detested as all those which had preceded it ; that as soon as an imposing 
force should present itself he would be immediately abandoned by all his partisans ; and 
that it would be possible to construct a new government. Permit me, gentlemen, to say 
that, if this hypothesis could appear seductive when it was proposed at length by interested 
lips, it seems that it found from the very beginning its counteraction in the very inanity 
of the element that it designated, and that were to be disposed in order to reconstitute the 
pretended new government, which was to offer to the belligerent parties sufficient guaran- 
tees, for, after all, it was only substituting Mexican element for Mexican element. And if 
you introduce the foreign element there, it will be an active element of dissolution. In- 
deed, no one doubts but that a haughty nation like the Mexican, which, perhaps, pushes 
national vanity too far, might regard with suspicion and distrust the undertakings of the 
foreigner. 

These considerations did not occur to the minds of the negotiators, so much eloquence 
did these refugees display when they pleaded the cause of the exile whilst pleading that of 
their personal interest It was thought that it was only requisite to touch the soil of 
Mexico in order that, at the instant, what the minister last year called the phantom of a 
government of Juarez should immediately vanish; and this had been announced — I appeal 
to your memories and to the proclamation, become famous, of the loyal officer who com- 
manded the troops— encountering obstacles on which they had not calculated. Our soldiers 
were to be received with crowns of flowers. Here were lying promises, extravagant dreams, 
on the faith of which it was wrong to enlist the policy and the arms of France. 

I acknowledge, however, that this hypothesis had been diplomatically foreseen, and 



142 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

under this respect our honorable colleague M. David was perfectly right to call attention to 
it. Only in this regard I would address a direct reproach to the member of the cabinet. 
Whatever be our position in the state, although it be quite modest, although it becomes 
none of us to exaggerate it, it must, however, be acknowledged that it transcends all posi- 
tions in two respects, which are equally interesting to be recalled to mind. 

In the first place, we dispose of the finances ; and in the second place, having acquired 
the right of advising the government on its external as well as on its internal policy, we 
have the right to speak with frankness. Our respect ought not to arrest the truth upon 
our lips. It is our duty to declare the whole truth as soon as ever we are asked, and if we 
were convinced that a war was unjust, that it had been undertaken on false principles, we 
should say so, we should refuse our concurrence, for the blood of France, its treasures, can- 
not be lavished but with our responsibility. And it is for this reason, gentlemen, that, in 
similar conjunctions, the words which are pronounced by the government ought to be im- 
pressed with the most complete frankness. 

I regret not to be able to make this concession to those which were pronounced in the 
month of March last. 

You know, in fact, that at this period all was yet uncertainty and confusion, as far as 
concerned the Mexican expedition. Official information was wanting to us ; we were con- 
vinced that in fact the little expeditionary corps, which had been directed to the shores of 
the Atlantic, had no other purpose than to solicit, to demand, aud to obtain, in case of 
need by force of reparation for the grievances of our countrymen. 

And yet Europe, which has a fine ear, heard rumors of various indiscretions which had 
transpired through the imperfectly closed doors of diplomacy, and of which the press had 
obtained possession. The mos,t extraordinary things were repeated. It was said, especially, 
that there was an intention of overturning the republic of Mexico, not to put in the place 
of the deposed president a man of the country, acquainted with its language, its usages, 
familiar with all the necessities of the government, but, what was most strange to the 
south, a prince of the north, an archduke of Austria. 

Ami you have not probably forgotten, gentlemen, the reserved manner in which he who has 
the honor to address you thought it his duty to explain himself in this regard whilst asking 
of the government such information as it interested you to obtain. For, permit me to 
subjoin it here, gentlemen, here was the dividing line between these two opposing policies — 
that of our colleague, the honorable M. David, and that of my honorable colleague, M. 
Picard ; M. David wishing to have civilization reign in Mexico, even at the price of our 
millions and of our armies ; M. Picard and I modestly demanding that we should confine 
ourselves to going to Mexico to obtain payment of the contributions which are due, and 
re-establish security which is threatened. 

What will the minister answer ? His language, gentlemen, will be perfectly clear, and 
it will be impossible for you not to recognize that it is the second of these policies which 
the minister has adopted. 

"England and Spain," said he, "have joined with us. The same offers have been made 
to the United States ..." Hear the sequel, gentlemen ; if we may use such a word in a 
discussion so serious, I might say that this application is piquant. " But the United States 
do not seem, in regard to Mexico, to concentrate their views on a simple reparation of 
injury done ; their policy sees things otherwise, and we have decided to act without them." 

Wonderful ! The United States are ambitious ; they are neighbors ; they have the imme- 
diate occasion of sin ; we who are so very distant, who can undertake expeditions only at 
very great expense, we are wise of necessity, and we desire nothing further than the repa- 
ration of our grievances. 

"But," added the minister, "should not this union of the three powers of itself completely 
reassure you against the particular suppositions on which you build your discourse? Be- 
yond patent, declared facts, you persist in seeing I know not what secret machinations of 
France in favor of a foreign interest 

" When such suppositions are affirmed, there should be at least some proofs, and you 
have none. 

"The treaty made between the three powers is clear and precise. The object is to de- 
mand of Mexico: 1st, a more effectual protection for the property and persons of their 
subjects; 2d, the execution of the obligations entered into with them by that republic." 
And the second article of the treaty adds: "The three contracting parties engage them- 
selves, &c, &0." But this is a thing already known to you, and I shall not repeat it. 

"All this," said the minister also, " clearly indicates to you both what the three powers 
wish to effect in common, aud what they forbid themselves t>> do " 

And, after having explained that the occupation of the Capital is necessary for the repa- 
ration of our grievances, the minister adds: "See why our standards are carried to Mexico. 
Our troops, having set out on the 20th of February, should have now ai rived there." 
Unhappily, gentlemen, events proceed not as fast as our speeches. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 143 

It is not the orators that I attack ; the intention of the minister was full of patriotism, 
hut he did not foresee, I am sure, the obstacles of all kinds which our brave soldiers were 
to encounter. 

The minister continued : " Now, if in the midst of this conflict, through a reaction easily 
conceivable, the unfortunate populations of those countries, weary at last of all the evils 
inflicted on them for forty years by the incessant alternatives of anarchy and tyranny, 
formed the wish to shake off at length the yoke of their oppressors conquered by us ; if in 
an hour of good sense, of instinct of sovereign welfare, they endeavored to give to them- 
selves at least a government of order and liberty, shall we hinder them?" 

So we go to Mexico not to hinder it from giving itself a government. 

"Tbis case," also added the minister, "is precisely provided for by the treaty as well 
as by the instruction: we will not bind the people by force . . . 

' ' We will not go to violate at Mexico the independence of the popular will ; but we 
will leave these unfortunate people perfectly free . . . . ; if they wish to continue their 
miserable existence, we will not impose on them a better fate." 

One could not be more categorical than this ; and it is here that the minister is in com- 
plete variance with our honorable colleague, M. David : 

" Yes, if at the sight of our squadrons there is revealed in this Mexican people a move- 
ment attracting them towards us, we will not close our arms to them, but we will not use 
force ; and if they prefer the miserable government under which they live, we will do 
nothing to cause its downfall." 

These are the words that were spoken in the name of the government ; here is the en- 
gagement in the face of which you have given your adhesion to its policy. And as to 
those allusions which I had unfortunately allowed myself to make in regard to that 
Austrian prince, see with what disdain the minister replies to me: 

"And as to those rumors which, says the honorable member with remarkable foresight, 
give umbrage to the ambassador of her Britannic Majesty, permit me to decline dwelling 
upon them. Officers have said at parting that they were going to Mexico to enthrone a 
foreign prince. What ! you imagine that this great secret of diplomacy, if it ever existed, 
would have been thus confided to the first officer that came on his way to Mexico ! This is 
not certainly serious. If, as you say, our ally has become uneasy at these rumors, you tell 
us also that she applied to the proper quarter for information as to their foundation in 
reality ; she asked our minister of foreign affairs, and you acknowledge yourselves the 
reply has been a denial of the truth of these rumors." 

This is important, gentlemen ; for if the contrary is true, what will you think of the 
language of the minister ? 

As to me, it is painful to me to suppose that the Chamber has been deceived ; yet, to 
repel such a supposition, I must admit another equally inadmissible ; it is that the minister 
of foreign affairs has so well kept the secret that the minister without portfolio did not 
know it. [Laughter.] For it is in the month of March, 1862, that this language is held 
to you. Now hear what was that of the minister of foreign affairs in the month of Octo- 
ber, 1861, that is, at the very time that the treaty was signed. He gives an account of a 
conversation had with the English minister: 

" Such an event (he speaks of the social dissolution in Mexico) cannot be a matter of 
indifference to England, and the principal means, in our opinion, to prevent its accomplish- 
ment would be the establishment in Mexico of a regenerative government strong enough 
to arrest its internal dissolution." Pursuing the development of these ideas in the form 
of an intimate and confidential conversation, " I have," says he, "added that, in case the 
contingency which I have indicated should be realized, the Emperor's government, free 
from all anticipations of self-interest, laid aside in advance all ideas of aspiring to the 
candidacy for any prince of the imperial family, and that, desirous of respecting the sus- 
ceptibilities of all parties, it would see with pleasure the choice of the Mexicans and the 
assent of the powers fall on a prince of the house of Austria." 

See, gentlemen, the value of ministerial denials. They are themselves belied by official 
documents. The truth has not been told to the Chamber, [murmurs of disapprobation ;] 
indeed, its conscience has been ensnared. [Cries of No, No.] For if the Chamber had 
known that there was question, not of avenging our countrymen, but of destroying one 
government to replace it by another, its decision would certainly have been different. 
[Renewed marks of disapprobation.] 

However it be, you see that, in this first phase of the expedition, you were assured at the 
same time by the concurrence of the other two powers and by the declaration made to 
you, that our forces and our treasures should be employed only in avenging our own 
injuries ; and that if we ought to accept a political regeneration that might be offered to 
us, we ought by no means to impose it. 

Three months pass away, and from the month of March I proceed to the month of June, 



144 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

1862, when the same discussion continued before you, after the withdrawal of England and 
Spain. 

Our honorable colleague, M. David, has told us that England never participated in this 
expedition but "with reluctance ; that she was well pleased to leave the burden of it to 
France and Spain and reap the fruits herself. 

If this is so, I derive from this concession of my honorable opponent the proof, that I 
just sought, of the exaggeration of the pretended violences committed against resident 
foreigners in Mexico ; and if that which has been said was true, England would nevei have 
shown, in regard to her own subjects, that strange disdain of their lives and property. 

As to Spain, every one will acknowledge with me that, from this point of view, she had 
interests conformable to ours. Yet discord slipped in among the allies. These are, M. 
David has told you, secondary facts. I ask him a thousand pardons ; these are, on the 
contrary, capital facts, not only because they leave us alone exposed to all the results of 
this hazardous expedition, but also because they throw a light extremely precious on the 
real motives which should be set forth in opposition to the apparent motives which alone 
the Chamber has known. 

It appears from all the official documents published, that, when the plenipotentiaries 
met at La Soledad, the charg6 d'affaires of France brought forward an ultimatum against 
which the charges d'affaires of England and Spain protested ; and they immediately de- 
clared that they had come, not to establish such or such a government, not to oppose such 
or such an individual, but to obtain serious guarantees and reparation of grievances. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to say here what undoubtedly has already occurred to your minds, 
that this scheme, so brilliantly set off by the eloquence of him to whom I reply — that is to say, 
the scheme of a government inaugurated for the greater glory and the greater advantage of 
France — should not cause us to forget the material elements of the question. I suppose 
that, in fact, France entertained this view in the very beginning ; I suppose that she con- 
cealed it from the eyes of the Chamber ; and this point is incontestable, that, at least to 
accomplish it worthily, must she have been ruled by questions of principle and not by 
questions of person. 

You tell us that you went to attack Juarez. I reply that you went to inaugurate General 
Almonte ; you have made yourselves the champions of an individual ; you had in your 
train the pernicious remnants of the Mexican exiles, who, deserting the true principles of 
nationality, appealed to the foreigner to conquer back for them the power they had lost. 
Here is the explanation of this moral revolt in Mexico. In all that the honorable M. David 
has said with regard to the elements of dissolution there is much truth. It must be 
acknowledged that, when a country is delivered up for many years to an anarchy, so to 
speak, chronic, it seems very near its dissolution ; but, as my friend M. Picard said, there 
is a way of reuniting immediately those wills divided by miserable ambition ; they can be 
reunited in one common sentiment, the love of country. 

Does it not belong to France to awake this sentiment ? Can she not take advantage of 
it 1 Consult all those who know Mexico ; they will tell you that if the Spaniards were de- 
tested, the French were regarded with affection. I go so far as to assert that if the French 
had announced at fiist that they would not interfere in any way with the internal politics* 
of the country, that they came to re-establish order, that it was a matter of little conse- 
quence to them that the presidential chair should be occupied by such or such a one, the 
road to Mexico would have been open to them. In place of this, they present themselves 
with an ultimatum, in which they say to Juarez, the choice of the national suffrage, "De- 
part ; you are a monster and the enemy of the human race." Should we be surprised that 
Mexican pride revolted ; that from all sides they rushed to arms ; and that this people, who 
was supposed to have fallen into complete dissolution, resisted this French expeditioi.? 
thanks certainly, I doubt not, to the advantages of a material situation, but also to prove 
that it wished to defend the sacred soil of the country against the invasion which threatened 
it. 

They told Juarez to vacate his place ; and there are two ways of declaring this sad truth 
to a government — either to say so directly, or to inform it of it by presenting an ultimatum 
impossible to be executed. This is what happened, and this is precisely why the ministers 
of England and Spain resisted this pretension of our minister. And here I cannot avoid 
remarking with what deplorable levity, to use no severer expression, this affair was con- 
ducted. 

What was the importance of the debts due to us by Mexico as regulated by treaty ? I 
have said, gentlemen, that Mexico was our debtor, according to treaty signed, for 750,000 
piastres. There were other claims, but they were conditional ; the amount did not reach 
5,000,000 of francs 

What does our charge" d'affaires do? Gentlemen, read the first article of his ultimatum: 
" Mexico engages to pay to Fiance the sum of 12,000.000 of piastres, at which is estimated 
the whole of the French claim." Sixty millions of francs! If in private affairs, gentle- 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 145 

men, a similar process were employed, what qualification would you apply to those who 
had recourse to it ? 

Well, the minister himself was not informed of this claim ; he was ignorant of it when 
he was advised of it by the protests of the allied powers. Behold, gentlemen, in what re- 
served, yet firm, terms he observes to his charge d'affaires that perhaps he had^gone too 
far. " The figure at which the department has been forced to value our claims did not reach 
that fixed by your first article." 

What ! Gentlemen, our charge d'affaires, in a matter so important, acted without an un- 
derstanding with his minister. A blank was given for 750,000 piastres, and by a shameful 
overcharge pretensions are so far raised as to demand 60,000,000 of francs. 

The minister is not informed of it, and he is under the necessity, when addressing 
the ambassador of France at London, to acknowledge that in fact the thing is pushed very 
much too far. " In writing to M. Dubois de Saligny," says the same minister, "in the 
sense of the preceding developments, I have, moreover, left him at liberty to use further 
the latitude allowed him by my first instructions to modify his demands." 

To modify his demands ! And it is France that speaks — France that has an army at her 
back, that seems to have but a word to pronounce to triumph over this petty people ; she 
demands 60,000,000, when there are due only 750,000 piastres, and perhaps 5,000,000. I 
shall not dwell upon this subject, gentlemen ; it affects your sentiments of probity too for- 
cibly not to be understood by you. 

I might say as much, and yet more forcibly, of another article of the ultimatum, which 
is designated as No. 3. It is utterly inexplicable ; it should draw categorical explanations 
from the government which has hitherto kept silence on the subject ; and if I have any re- 
proach to make to the commission, it is that they have not previously called for them. Al- 
ready, indeed, gentlemen, the questions of last year had put them on the way ; they knew 
that it was a rotten affair, and that the thing should at all events be cleared up. 

Here is article 3d : " Mexico shall be bound to the entire, loyal and immediate execution 
of the contract concluded in the month of February, 1859, between the Mexican govern- 
ment and the Jecker house." 

Now, what is the importance of this contract? 15,000,000 of piastres or 75,000,000 of 
francs ; and it was required that Mexico, in the state of distress in which it was, should 
succumb under the weight of our armies or pay 60,000.000 at first and 75,000,000 after- 
wards, that is, 135,000,000 francs. 

Such were the demands made. It was in a military way that Mexico was addressed ; and 
if obedience was not rendered to these demands, war was to be declared. It is the first time, 
in my knowledge at least, that in a diplomatic treaty, in an ultimatum, in a summons ad- 
dressed by an armed people to one whom it can invade, that there are thus found stipulated 
guarantees of reimbursement for an affair purely private, and I add, for an affair that was 
known at the time by those residing in Mexico as a shameful transaction. 

Assuredly the responsibility cannot attach to the minister of foreign affairs ; but if his 
honor is entirely acquitted iu this regard, have I not the right to accuse his prudence ? 
Was he permitted to ignore the Jecker affair ? Did it not make noise enough in Mexico ? 
When there was question of this departure for Mexico, everything was done with such 
carelessness that they ignored the men, the things, the realities with which they were to 
come in contact. Here, however, is the position assumed by the minister of foreign af- 
fairs, and you will see in what terms he expresses himself on this point : 

" As to what especially concerns article 3, relatively to the Jecker affair, there is evi- 
dently a distinction to be made in this case between what directly concerns our interests 
and what is foreign to it. When General Miramon issued the decree which brought on his 
contract with the Jecker house, the communications of the legation having stated that for- 
eign commerce derived considerable advantage from the financial measure facilitated by 
that house to the Mexican government, it was natural that we should regard it as of great 
utility to hinder, as much as possible, the revocation of this measure and of the operations 
which facilitated it. It is with this view that the instructions of the department have in- 
vited you, as you have already taken the initiative, to sustain the claims and maintain the 
complaints provoked on this question by the conduct of the government of Juarez. It 
would now, however, appear from the opposition with which you have met on the part of 
Sir Charles Wyke to your demands in respect to this affair, that no advantage, they say, 
would accrue to foreign commerce from the contract made with the Jecker house, but that 
this latter only would be exclusively benefited by the accomplishment <jf this contract. I 
do not sufficiently understand the state of the case, but I call your attention to the im- 
portance of distinguishing well in this affair between what may really involve the interests 
which it is our duty to defend, and what may concern others of a very different character. 

" The actual government cannot pretend to deprive our countrymen of advantages as- 
sured to them by a regular measure adopted by the administration of General Miramon, 
for the only reason that that measure emanated from an enemy ; but we, on our part,. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 10 



146 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

would have no foundation in reason were we to wish to impose obligations on the actual 
government that did not flow essentially from governmental responsibilty." 

Ah, gentlemen, last year I heard the minister without portfolio repent with complacency, 
" When we are a great people, when we are a great government, when we direct great af- 
fairs, we should also he a vigilant minister." I say t-o too ; and it was not permitted thus 
to involve negotiations on uncertainties, on suppositions, en numbers which the least ex- 
amination causes to vanish and perhaps crumble under the reprobation of the public con- 
science What ! the minister is not instructed ; he is ignorant. At the smallest objection 
made by the representative of England, he stops short and says that it is possible that the 
government of Miramon has done a thing that was not entirely indifferent to foreign com- 
merce. 

But if all these things exist you ought to have known them ; you are minister in order 
to know them ; it was your duty to obtain information. War is not a play left to the ca- 
prices of a vain ambition ; when people engage in it, when they send their fleets beyond 
the seas, when they deprive their country of her children and her money, we should know 
what they wish to do and what they wish to demand ; and we should not, at the very first 
claim, immediately recoil as the minister of foreign affairs has done, uncertain as he was 
about the pretensions of his representative. 

But, gentlemen, this is not enough, and it is not only on the ignorance of the minister 
of foreign affairs that I rely to characterize this deplorable affair as I should ; it is on its 
own nature, and it behooves you to understand it thoroughly. These 75,000,000 that Jecker 
claims were, the representative of England asserted, a manifest robbery in regard to the 
Mexican public and government. Who, in fact, was Jecker? He was, as you have been 
told, a Swiss banker ; he arrived poor in Mexico, and in twenty years has made a fortune 
of more than three millions, which, I may mention it in passing, proves that foreign com- 
merce is not entirely abandoned to plunderers. [Laughter.] In possession of a fortune so 
considerable, he has plunged into great industrial schemes ; he has embarked in those en- 
terprises, objects of the dreams and the hopes of the speculators of other t : mes as of the 
speculators of to-day, which sometimes hide behind diplomacy to acquire the confidence of 
the public. I refer to partnerships in common ; Jecker engidphed considerable capital in 
them, and in 1859 his affairs became much embarrassed. 

Beside him was another person who was not less so ; I refer to General Miramon. At the 
end of his resources, having pillaged even the churches, as our honorable colleague, M. 
David, very well observed, (for this party which they call ultra-clerical, be sure, does not 
belie its name, and when it wishes to coin money with religion it does not spare it.) General 
Miramon, with empty coffers, turns to Jecker who can offer him only similar ones. But 
there was the public to replenish the one and the other ; and it was then that they made 
that wonderful scheme, and that they said to one another, " If Jecker is authorized by the 
government to make a great loan, the public will come into it ; the Mexican public (it is a 
little French in this respect) [laughter] will believe the fine promises that will be made to 
them, and when they will be told that they will derive a handsome emolument from it 
they will bring their capital. But there was not question only of capital. If they had 
authorized Jecker to issue fifteen millions in paper, and if they had thought that he would 
find fifteen millions of specie, they would have committed a grave error, and these gentle- 
men were incapable of that. [Laughter.] All who are acquainted with Mexico know to 
perfection that it is flooded with false money. The successive governments have wished to 
leave a souvenir behind them, and that souvenir is bankruptcy. They have all emitted 
bills of credit with which they have flooded the country, and which, to he sure, they for- 
got to pay when they left power. [Renewed laughter.] 

There were, especially, the Peza bills, issued in 1856, if I am not mistaken, but the date 
is of little importance ; what I am sure of is, that they circulated among the Mexican 
people enormously depreciated. Those who took them at 7 per cent, were considered rash ; 
these bills sold only for 6 per cent, of their nominal value. Well, it was arranged between 
General Miramon and the Jecker house that the Jeckei house should issue fifteen millions 
of paper to be guaranteed by the government. The government guaranteed its reimburse- 
ment at the end of five years by means of annuities which I need not explain ; it guaran- 
teed, moreover, the payment of the interest semi-annually, and the Jecker house was 
commissioned for this operation. 

But the Mexican government, as I have had the honor of saying, did not expect to 
receive fifteen milions ; far from it. It was said that the Peza hills would be received in 
payment at their nominal value, provided they were willing, on these hills, to pay 25 per 
cent, in specie. These 25 per cents, chemically disengaged (I hope the Chamber will allow 
me this expression) from all these scoruc of Btock-jobbing, formed, in reality, the net residue 
which was to return into the treasury of Mexieo. 

However, as Jecker 16 the associate of Miramon, Miramon will i i • • t come off best. 
[Laughter.] The net profit was to be 3,750,000 piastres to the Jecker house, which being 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 147 

commissioned for this operation, had allowed itself a commission of 20 per cent., that is, 
750,000 piastres ; and as it was in its counting-rooms that the semi-annual interest was to 
be paid, it had very prudently asked the person with whom it treated to let the money 
remain in its hands as a guarantee of the debt. So tbat Jecker first deducted 750,000 
piastres for commission, and afterwards 2,250,000 piastres for guarantee ; whence it followed 
that the residue, which really entered the coffers of the Mexican government, was only 
750,000 piastres. And if you please to take notice that the Mexican government repre- 
sented by Miramon borrowed 15,000,000 of piastres, you will see that it borrowed at 90 
per cent. [Laughter.] 

You think we are at the end ? Ah ! it is because you know not the usages of traffickers 
in Mexico. See how matters were carried on : 

It has been said that the foreign merchants took a considerable number of these bills. I 
have here the ezposi of the operation, and see what it states. I have made an exact esti- 
mate of the bills taken by the public, and the public were yet much too confiding, for they 
took about 471,275 piastres ; as to the surplus, it remained in the hands of Jecker, who 
was unable to negotiate it, that is, fourteen millions and a fraction of a million. 

1 have forgotten to give the Chamber, and I ask pardon for it, but I am not as much at 
my ease here as at the palace. [Laughter.] I have forgotten to give the dates of the 
operation. This operation took place in the month of February, 1859 ; it was at that time 
that Jecker issued a part of those bills and in the course of the year 1860. 

Did Jecker place in the hands of the Mexican government the 750,000 piastres for 
which he was accountable? No. See what he had the ingenuity to make Miramon 
accept. I said ingenuity ; I am wrong ; usurers everywhere resemble each other, and it is 
not only in Mexico that children are compelled to receive things of which they have the 
least need. [Laughter.] Miramon was to receive 1,490,414 piastres. Here is what he 
did receive: The public paid in money 52,541 piastres and 56 fractions. Jecker paid 
566,386 piastres and 27 fractions, which in reality makes Jecker to have paid in specie on 
these 1,490,414 piastres only 618,927 piastres. He paid in afterwards, in bills issued by 
Zuloaga, 342,000 piastres ; in Peza bills, 30,000 piastres ; in Jecker bills, 24,750 piastres ; 
to the order of sundries on the customs, 100,000 piastres ; in equipments, 70,000 piastres ; 
in various bills receivable, 6,750 piastres and 56 fractions ; in reimbursement of the Grosso 
debt, 298,000 piastres; sum total, 1,490,428 piastres and 39 fractions. This Grosso, 
whose reimbursement is here put into account as payment for 298,000 piastres, is a nephew 
of Miramon. Miramon had conceded to him the exclusive privilege of clothing the Mexi- 
can troops, which, as our soldiers must be by this time convinced, is an operation costing 
very little to him who is charged with it. [General laughter.] This Grosso had the inge- 
nuity to present a bill for payment of 298,000 piastres, and if the investigations which have 
been sent me are correct, the Mexican government has been certainly robbed of two-thirds. 

It is by means of all these deductions that Jecker succeeded in charging the Mexican 
government with all these sums on which he paid in, in reality, only 750,000 piastres. It 
follows from this, that having disbursed in all 1,000,000 of piastres, in reality he retained 
1,500,000, so that instead of being a creditor he should be accounted a debtor. And here 
is the honest capitalist in whose favor our minister interferes, for whom our ultimatum is 
going, perhaps, to shed the blood of the French soldiers and the Mexican soldiers ; here is 
the reason of our intervention ; here are the lessons of morality and civilization that France 
is going to give the world. [Expressions of dissent from many benches.] 

And as a final fact, I shall add the following : -It has been said, and repeated at different 
times in the papers, that it was the fall of Miramon that caused the failure of Jecker. 
Nothing more untrue. Jecker failed in the month of May, 1860. I have the record of 
the proceedings of the meeting held by his creditors in September, 1860, and it was in 
December, 1861, that Miramon was overthrown. 

Gentlemen, Jecker's bills were admitted in his failure and bought at a low price. Is 
Jecker the keeper of them ? Has he caused them to pass into the hands of third parties ? 
Should we, in this respect, consider as furnishing information worthy of being brought 
before the Chamber all the data in our hands ? You all know to what I allude. We have 
received letters emanating from members of the Jecker family, and intercepted. From 
these letters it would appear that Jecker flattered himself, very unreasonably, no doubt, 
and calumniously, that he would find (among the high personages and functionaries of 
France) a support which, certainly, he has never found. As for me, I am much better 
pleased to say that such letters cannot be mentioned here. I could have wished that the 
Moniteur explained itself, and that in presence of a fact so public, and which was of a nature 
to alarm the conscience of all honest people, it gave them a complete denial. Much more 
so ; and it is the only fact that I wish to retain, for it is unfortunately testified by an act 
of the French administration, because in one of these letters, which bore the date of August 
31, 1862, the correspondent informs Jecker, as a precious advantage gained, of the publi- 
cation in the Bulletin des Lois of his act of naturalization. 



148 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The fact is true, and, in my opinion, it is inexplicable. How? It is in the progress o£ 
our debates, after it had been revealed that the Jecker debts concealed a veritable rascality, 
that Jecker is thus picked up by the administration and made a French citizen ! Can we 
not, from this, conclude that it is an assistance given to this rotten claim ? Happily, gentle- 
men, the developments made in this Chamber are before the world, and it will be impos- 
sible for diplomacy to obtain public sanction for such a proceeding. But, in fine, do not 
the honest public desire to have all this thing cleared up in a categorical manner ? When 
I point out, in this deplorable affair, unpardonable consequences, demands which cannot be 
justified, this war so rashly undertaken, those ultimatums which are belied by those who 
ought to know them and maintain them ; and when at the end of this demonstration I find 
the French nation offering shelter to this man who has never ceased to be a Mexican and 
a miserable agitator, I have a strong right, I think, to call to these facts all your atten- 
tion, your entire consideration, and to ask that the government would be pleased to dispel 
the sad clouds that hang over the probity of its agents. 

This is what I have to say in regard to this article 3 of the ultimatum, and you under- 
stand that it cannot be, especially in a French assembly, considered as secondary. Every- 
thing that touches honor, everything that touches dignity, everything that would be 
stigmatized in private life, everything that would be stricken down by the law, everything 
that would be condemned by the magistrate, cpnnot be let pass with impunity and admitted 
in public life. And now must we be astonished that this ultimatum caused England to 
withdraw ? Must we be astonished that Spain was unwilling to accept the responsibility of it ? 
Do not forget— and this is also one of the characteristic traits of this deplorable enter- 
p r j ge _that the charge d'affaires of France raised the pretension that each of the powers 
should produce its own ultimatum and its own valuation of pecuniary claims, without the 
other belligerent powers being allowed to discuss them, so that each one was mistress of 
the situation ; for it sufficed, "for example, for England to claim a thousand millions to 
render the war fatally necessary. 

It is, then, on this question of money, in regard to which the government can no longer 
maintain the discussion which it abandons, a circumstance which bears down the responsi- 
bility of its agent ; it is on this question that the bickering arises between the three powers 
and that war is resolved on. 

Here, gentlemen, you understand I must not speak but with extreme reserve. It is not 
my part to say how, in a military point of view, history will judge, not the soldiers and 
generals who have displayed on the spot all the bravery, all the skill, all the ardor, all the 
resolution, that are ever found in the French armies, but those who have ordered this 
expedition, those who have not provided for it the materials, the means necessary for its 
prompt success. I desire, gentlemen, to leave all these faults in the shade. [Demonstra- 
tions in the Chamber.] 

A voics. leave nothing in the shade. 

M. Jules Favke. They afflict me ; they contribute no way to the solution which we 
6eek. What Ave seek is a prompt termination, without any diminution of our dignity, of 
the war in which we are engaged ; for to pretend now, after all the explanations into 
which I have entered, that this war is conformable with our principles, would be to deny 
what is evident. These principles', gentlemen, are paraded on all occasions by the minister ; 
he every vvhere repeats that the government which he serves has sprung from universal 
suffrage, and that this is a rule which he intends to respect among all neighboring nations. 
Here is what he said on this point in your session of March 13, 1861: " The principle 
of non-iutervention being thus laid down, there was yet, on the point of general policy, 
another reason which imperiously ordered us to respect it. We could not, after having 
proclaimed at home, as the basis of our government, national sovereignty and the suffrage 
of the country, fail to respect it among others. The Emperor has been elected by the 
people ; he reigns and he glories in it, according to the national will ; and you would wish 
him, beyond our frontiers, to employ the force coufided to him by that national will, in 
repressing neighboring nations, in repressing their aspirations, and snatching from their 
hands their titles to sovereignty, thereby deny his own legitimacy !" 

These, gentlemen, are the words of M. Billault. I ask him, are they ironical ? Were 
they uttered merely to call forth our legitimate applause ? Were they not the expression 
of the minister's political conscience ? If I assume this last supposition, I say to him, 
By what right are you in Mexico ? You have gone there to avenge national interests ? 
In this purpose I follow you ; but if these interests are avenged on the soil itself of Mexico, 
if at Orizaba, that is, in a salubrious position, we are offered guarantees, what good is it to 
overturn the government of Juarez? Is it against Juarez that you intended this Avar.' 
Do you wish to overthrow him at any cost? Permit me to recall to you your own words. 
This government, against which you precipitate your legions, was a shadow — a breath of 
air; it was enough for you to appear, and it would be destroyed. Well, it has resisted 
you ; it has strengthened itself by what is most generous in the world — that is, by the 
blood shed by our soldiers. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 149 

Is not this enough ? Do you wish to continue this cruel expedition ? Do you wish, 
through a false point of honor, to force men thus to massacre each other in order to arrive 
at nothing ; in order to arrive at a result which will confound your policy, I fear not to assert 
it, for you pursue a phantasm when you propose to raise on the sand a solid edifice not to 
he overturned by coming events. 

You are then in opposition with justice. You did not tell the whole truth before the 
Chamber when you were interrogated, and you are now obliged to complete it. In vain 
do you take refuge, as my honorable friend M. Picard told you, behind the brilliant 
sophisms of a policy very seductive to some minds.. You wish, it is said, to resist north 
America, and you do not see that you call her in ! You are going to establish a point in 
Southern America that will become the battle-field whereon the United States and Europe 
will meet. 

Must we yield to all your fancies ? Must we find ourselves in a struggle with the north 
and fight beside the south? Would you thus constrain us to espouse all the quarrels of 
one people with another ? Is this your policy ? As for me, I protest against it in the 
name of principle, in the name of the law of nations. I say that there is no possibility for 
us to attack a people, who, by maintaining their nationality, by offering us satisfactory 
guarantees, have sufficiently honored themselves that we should not drive them contempt- 
uously from our courts without being williDg to hear them, and that we should not receive 
them but at the point of our bayonets. 

If we have not justice on our side, gentlemen, what must we say of the final conse- 
quence of this enterprise ? For it is the end, in fine, that must be regarded in all things ; 
and when one is in a political position, when one disposes of all the forces of France, it 
should not be involved in a blind affair in which its dignity or its interests might have to 
suffer. 

Last year, though well aware that in the presence of a body such as this that does me 
the honor to listen to me I must carefully avoid all that could wound the feeling of 
national honor, I deemed myself authorized to ask the immediate suspension of an expe- 
dition unfortunately undertaken, and which could in no way cause us to consider that we 
had experiencd a check, because our soldiers, in insufficient numbers, had broken against 
walls of granite. I believe that I gave you sage advice, and if it had been followed 
thousands of precious lives, ingloriously decimated by disease, would have been preserved. 
Now you persist, and you wish at all hazards, enlarging the circle of your policy, ambitious 
of military glory, you wish your flag to wave over the city of Mexico. 

Surely, gentlemen, if France wills it, she will succeed, nothing can deter her ; and when 
our generous children meet an obstacle, they are so prodigal of the existence which Gocl 
has given them that nothing can resist them. 

But should not our hearts be moved at it ? Can we coolly regard these human heca- 
tombs offered to that fantastic, confused divinity, which has never been defined by the 
ministers ? [Interruptions and cries of disapprobation. ] Can we consent to have thou- 
sands of families plunged in grief for the sterile glory of reaching the Mexican capital ? ' 

Now, gentlemen, suppose you are at the city of Mexico, what are you going to do then ? 
You say that you will overturn the government of Juarez ! Undoubtedly. But what will 
you do then ? I hear the honorable M. David immediately cry out, "The city of Mexico 
is the heart of the nation ; there all its military resources are concentrated." But the 
honorable M. David, who knows so well the history and the geography of Mexico, will 
permit me to reply to him with the following two facts for consideration : Mexico, he 
knows, has been incessantly rent by civil war, and the city of Mexico has been the sterile 
stake which the different pretenders conquered in turn, notwithstanding which they never 
possessed more than an ephemeral and limited power. 

And as to the geography — but, gentlemen, only those who know it not can believe that 
the conquest of the city of Mexico necessarily carries along with it the conquest of Mexico. 
The city of Mexico is situated 69 leagues from the coast, from Vera Cruz. Do you know 
what is the greatest extent of Mexico in its utmost length ? It is 950 leagues ; and in 
these 950 leagues to the northwest there are rich and populous provinces with important 
cities. 

I will mention some: Guanaxuato has 41,000 inhabitants; it is 253 kilometres to the 
northwest of Mexico, and the whole State has more than 520,000 inhabitants. Do you 
wish to proceed further ? Traverse 450 kilometres, and you find the city of Guadalaxara 
with 60,000 inhabitants. You have then Valladolid with 18,000 ; you have the State of 
Xalisco with 800,000, and others which I shall not mention, for fear of mistake, for I do 
not possess the same amount of information as the honorable M. David, and mine, I 
acknowledge, is of very recent date. Yet it is guaranteed by all the books of geography, 
which know perhaps more than all of us, and which we can consult. 

Well, when the French shall reach the city of Mexico,, they will establish a government, 
I suppose ; it may be Almonte, it may be the Archduke Maximilian, who is, perhaps, yet 



150 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

kept in reserve in spite of all asseverations to the contrary ; it may be, perhaps, any other 
prince of Germany, for in this respect the fertility of Germany is inexhaustible. [Laughter.] 

But when this German prince shall have heen established, what will you do ? You must 
support him. Juarez with his legions, with his partisans, (if not Juarez, some other rep- 
resentative of nationality) will retire into the provinces that remain free. Will you follow 
him ? After having traversed sixty-nine leagues to reach the city of Mexico, will you 
traverse nine hundred more to come up with him who will resist you ? We are at Orizaba ; 
we have made twenty-two leagues ; we have already spent more than one hundred and 
four millions without counting what we know nothing of, which makes five millions a 
league. [Demonstrations in the Chamber.] At this cost all the treasures of France would 
not suffice. [Interruptions. Marks of disapprobation] And what would he the end? 
To regenerate Mexico, to impose a stable government on that unfortunate people ? But 
it cannot he stable except on condition that you support it by your arms. Consult expe- 
rience. 

In 1818 the United States waged war with Mexico. The United States bordered upon 
Mexico ; they had all the facilities for sending men and munitions of war. Well, not- 
withstanding this, the United States spent one hundred millions of dollars, and the war 
lasted two years. 

I acknowledge, gentlemen, and it is a confession which I desire to make to the honor of 
France, that war costs less with us than in America ; yet, whatever this concession be 
worth, we must acknowledge that a war, two thousand leagues from one's country, neces- 
sitates enormous sacrifices ; that to defend our rights we need not place ourselves in un- 
acceptable conditions. What you say now of the honor of your flag you will be obliged to 
say afterwards ; the first fault will draw j r ou into a second one, and you will find your- 
selves under an impossibility of withdrawing. This will be another Roman occupation, 
without the glory of having maintained a great principle. You will not then have the 
right to say that it is in the interest of the Catholic world, but only in the interests of the 
Mexicans, that you will spend fifty millions a year, and that you will send 30,000 men 
annually, of whom a great number will be cut down by the murderous effect of the climate. 

This is a line of policy with which I can not agree ; and when I remain convinced that 
this expedition has been undertaken only on the faith of lying communications, [disappro- 
bation,] that your representatives abroad have imposed unacceptable conditions which have 
brought on the rupture between us, England, and Spain ; when it is in opposition to the 
rights of the Mexicans, and the interests of France, that this deplorable war is prolonged, 
I can but entreat the Chamber to use the right which appertains to it to manifest its will 
respectfully and firmly, and to disengage, as I do solemnly by this protest, its responsibil- 
ity from that of the government. [Obstreperous excitement.] 

His excellency M. Billault, minister without portfolio, rises to speak. 

Numerous voices. To-morrow! To-morrow! 

The President. The minister without portfolio has the floor. 

His excellency the Minister. Gentlemen, the lateness of the hour compels me to ask 
the Chamber to adjourn the discussion till to-morrow ; but I make, in presence of the 
Chamber, the engagement to refute thoroughly all the accusations brought against the 
policy of France. [Good, very good.] 

M. Juxes Favre. On condition that I may reply. 

The President. The continuation of the discussion is deferred till to-morrow. 

The Chamber adjourned at 6 o'clock. 

["Lc Moniteur Universel," No. 39, February S, 1863, page 101, column 4 ] 

Session of Saturday, February 7. 
His excellency the Duke of Moray, president, in the chair. 

The session was opened at 2 o'clock. Baron J. David, one of the secretaries, read the 
minutes of the session of yesterday ; the minutes were adopted. 

The President. I lay before the Chamber a letter from M. Arnaud requesting leave of 
absence on account of ill health. There is no opposition ? The leave is granted. Does 
any one desire to present a report ? 

M. Ciiabanon. I have the honor to present a report on the bill relative to an extraordi- 
nary impost by the department of Card. 

The President. The report will be printed and distributed. The order of the day is the 
continuation of the discussion on the address. 

(The ministerial benches were occupied by their excellencies MM Baroche, minister, pres- 
ident of the council of state ; Billault, Maguc, ministers without portfolio ; De Parieu, vice- 
president of the council of state; General Allard, Boudet, Vuillcfroy, BoinvillierB, and 
Viutry, chairmen of committees in the council of state.) 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 151 

The President. The deliberation continues on section third, and on the amendment pro- 
posed to this section by M. Jules Favre and several other members. 

His excellency M. Billault, minister without portfolio. Gentlemen, as I enter upon the 
discussion of the amendment submitted to your deliberation, I cannot pass over in silence 
the first impression made upon me by reading it. In the parliamentary governments from 
which we have adopted the address and its political debates, it is a traditional custom that 
the language destined to be heard by the sovereign should always bear the impress of re- 
spectful deference [Good, good.] The courtesy of the words does not hinder their sin- 
cerity, nor, if needs be, their firmness. 

I hear frequent mention of liberty as it is in England. It would be well to consult the 
English practice on this point ; I do not know that it would be easy to find in it any phrase 
borrowed from the harshness manifested by certain amendments submitted to your atten- 
tion. [Renewed marks of approbation.] 

I will draw from this reflection but one consequence : it is that the extreme liberty of 
form evidences, whatever may be said, the great liberty existing in fact. [Good, good.] 

The policy which France pursues in Mexico, which our soldiers are now defending in the 
face of the enemy, has been the object of accusations which I yesterday promised the Cham- 
ber to refute to-day. I will trace step by step the causes which have induced the expedi- 
tion, the incidents for which it has been sought to calumniate it ; it will not be the fault 
of the explicitness of my words if each and every fact is not clearly explained to the Cham- 
ber. [Good.] 

In the amendment submitted to you the legitimate causes of the expedition now com- 
menced are denied. I proceed to enumerate them anew in brief. Is it denied that against 
the government of Juarez we had to complain of three treaties obligatory upon it, and all 
three by it violated, the treaty of 1853, that of 1859, that of 1861 ? Is it denied that these 
three treaties stipulated reparation for the outrages, the murders, the pillagings, the rob- 
beries of which our fellow-countrymen have been the victims ? Is it denied that the Mex- 
ican custom-house revenues were assigned, in part, for the payment of these reparations? 
Is it denied that the government of Juarez, breaking these three treaties, has proclaimed 
the forced suspension of them, and has laid hands on the funds collected for carrying them 
into effect ? Is it denied that, under the government of Juarez, the French population has 
been incessantly the victim of brutal violences, odious spoliations, robberies — ill treatment 
of every kind? Is this denied ? That government established itself in the city of Mexico 
towards the end of 1860 ; we immediately accredited our minister ; in the commencement 
of 1861 he arrived there with the most kindly intentions. Consigning all former wrongs 
to oblivion, we were disposed loyally to second the efforts of the new government to re-es- 
tablish, if that were possible, a little order in the country. It has required the continuance, 
the constant accumulation of acts of violence and wrong, to induce us first to withdraw our 
kindly feelings, and then to feel the necessity of an efficacious military demonstration. 

The impression was sought to be made yesterday that the wrongs of which we complain 
were not the act of the government of Juarez, but were the act of preceding governments. 
But read all the despatches of 1861, and especially those of June, July, August, September, 
October, and November, to the moment when our minister, by order of the French gov- 
ernment, was forced to leave that deplorable country ; there is not one that does not attest, 
on the part of that government, the violation of plighted faith; not one which does not attest 
robberies, assassinations, attacks of every kind upon our resident countrymen. This disorderly 
state of affairs is not attested only by French assertions. You believe more in the affirma- 
tions of the ministers of England and Spain than in those of the minister of your own coun- 
try ? Be it so. [Good, good ] Well, Sir Charles Wyke wrote to his government, on the 
27th of May, 1861, that is, at the time when the tyranny of Juarez held sway in the city 
of Mexico ; he wrote as follows : 

"The congress, instead of giving the government sufficient force to put an end to the 
horrible disorders that reign in all parts of the country, occupies itself with disputes on 
different theories of the pretended government and ultra-liberal principles. During this 
time the respectable part of the population is left without defence against the attacks of 
the robbers and assassins who swarm on the highways and in the streets of the capital. 
The constitutional government cannot maintain its authority in the various States of the 
confederation, which, in fact, are perfectly independent ; so that the same causes which 
divided the confederation of Central America, and which are at work here, will probably 
produce the same results. 

"The only hope of an advantageous change that I can see is in the small conservative 
party which may attain to power before all is lost, and which can save its country from 
the ruin which threatens it. 

" From the moment that we shall make known our determination no longer to permit 
English subjects to be robbed and assassinated with impunity we will be respected. AH 
sensible Mexicans will approve a measure, the necessity of which they are the first to recog- 



152 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

nize, in order to put an end to the excesses which, every day and every hour, are com- 
mitted, under a government as corrupt as it is powerless to maintain order and to effect 
the execution of its own laws " 

On the 28th of October he wrote again : "The experience of each day tends to prove 
how utterly absurd it is to seek to govern this country with the limited faculties accorded 
to the executive power by the present ultra-liberal constitution. I see no hope of ameli- 
oration but in the advent of a foreign intervention, or in the formation of a reasonable 
government, composed of the principal men of the conservative party, who, for the present, 
are devoid of influence, and fear to stir unlees with mateiial assistance from without." 

These facts stated by our agents were evident to all the world. It is true that to acquit 
Juarez of them, these facts are attributed to brigandage, and it is added that- brigandage is 
endemic in that unfortunate country. We shall probably hear on Monday, gentlemen, 
something on Neapolitan brigandage, severe words, and they will be well founded, but I 
ask how, in the face of this seveiity towards acts not directed against our fellow-country- 
men, there is found such an abundance of indulgence for Mexican brigandage of which 
our citizens are the victims. [Good, good ] The government of Juarez is not only guilty 
for its impotence, its corruption, as the minister of England says ; it is not only culpable 
of being unable or unwilling to prevent the brigandages committed about it ; it is not only 
guilty of letting the brigands that surround it go unpunished ; it is guilty of making of 
them colonels, generals, friends, confidants. [I hat's so; that's so; good, good.] It is, 
moreover, personally guilty of the direct violation of all the engagements into which it 
has entered. 

Again, I ask, is it bound by treaties with us, treaties subscribed by its predecessors, trea- 
ties subscribed by itself ? Has it not violated these treaties ? Has it not forcibly seized for 
itself the sums collected for us, and which those treaties had assigned to us? 

Here are the facts ; they are incontestable. In the face of these violations and of these 
violences, is there one man in this assembly who does not feel the necessity for France to 
enforce respect for the treaties made with her and with citizens who glory in being French- 
men ? There was once in the world a people whose members had to say but one word, " I 
am a Roman citizen," to insure universal respect. There is another to-day which, in every 
quarter of the world, enforces with equal energy respect for its countrymen ; acts of the 
greatest energy are familiar to it in this regard, and it has just very recently given a lively 
proof of it in the waters of Brazil. I admire its vigorous patriotism ; but you will not take 
it ill that the government of France should imitate it, and cause its countrymen also to be 
respected as much as British citizens are respected. [Enthusiastic approbation] 

The cause of our offended honor, of our treaties violated, of our funds carried off, the 
cause of our fellow-citizens harassed, pillaged, assassinated — these causes cannot be aban- 
doned by a government conscious of its obligations, and whose first duty it is to make its 
country respected. 

You seek to make these causes so legitimate be foi gotten by evok'ng I know not what 
scandal; of which it is hoped the mists, more or less obscure, will shade from the eyes of 
prejudiced public opinion all the sincerity of purpose,, all the justice of the resolutions of 
the government. But these mists will soon be dissipated. What it imports me from the 
beginning to state well is, that in the face of the acts of the government of Juarez, there 
is no people so feeble, so timid, so pacifically inclined, that would not deem itself necessi- 
tated to have recourse to force to maintain its disregarded rights. 

Is not this opinion of France, gentlemen, also that of England ? Has not England judged , 
as we have done, that the measure was full ? Has she not recalled her minister ? Has she 
not with us signed a treaty for action in common ? Has not the sentiment of England been 
also that of Spain ? Has not Spain as well as England made common cause with us ? Has 
she not sent her troops upon Mexican soil ? Has she not judged, equally with us. that it was 
for her honor, that it was for the urgent interest of her citizens to resort to this great and 
last resort of nations, the employment of force, when their rights are violated ? There is 
undoubtedly no occasion to accuse either England or Spain of this pretended desire to en- 
throne a foreign prince, or of any Jecker debt whatever to enforce. Yet the English and 
the Spanish have judged as well as we, for the same reasons that we have, the violation of 
treaties and the vexations to which their citizens have been subjected, that the occasion 
for the employment of force was presented, and that it was necessary to use it. 

I insist on these facts, because it is important to establish well that the motives which 
have decided us would have decided any nation, however little desirous of making itself 
respected in the world, and that three great nations, identical i:i their complaints, have 
been equally so in their resolution to act. 

The employment of force being found necessary, and being resolved on. what have been 
the steps taken by the Emperor's government inconsequence? It has been asserted that 
its conduct has been adventurous, rash. 1 shall presume to show that it has been prudent, 
wise, and circumspect In the first place, it had an understanding with the powers which 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 153 

had the same interests as France. It thus avoided all cause for jealousy, difficulty, and 
embarrassment, and the three powers, in unison, regulated the conditions of their action. 
France did not even take, in the beginning, the principal part in the demonstration. The 
proportion of the forces had been agreed upon. Spain, whom so many memories recall into 
those countries, whom the most important interests in the very Gulf of Mexico command 
to be strong and respected, Spain had found in the traditions of her policy and the good 
will of ours towards her the reasons for playing the principal part, and having numerous 
corps d'armte. England, whose power is chiefly maritime, gave the assistance of her fleets. 
And as for us, as resolved as the Spanish, but in less number, and leaving to Spain the 
honor of the principal situation, we sent originally but 2,500 men. 

Thus, then, driven unto the last intrenchments of her honor, France, having come to 
an understanding with the great powers, having the same interests as they, and regulating 
with common accord the concurrence of each, she who has been accustomed to take the 
chief parts took only the second. Assuredly, in such circumstances, she was neither rash 
nor adventurous ; she was sensible and politic. [Very good ; very good.] 

Indeed, there could not well be any great degree of temerity in the fact that three 
powers, among the principal of the world, should proceed to demand of a savage and 
tyrannical government to yield at length to reason and equity. There could be nothing very 
venturesome in this that, preceded by Spain, followed by England, we should undertake 
to uphold our rights and our claims in Mexico. How, under these circumstances, can the 
French government be accused of having imptudently and with levity sported with the 
blood and treasures of its country ? 

But there has been brought forward another serious imputation which it behooves us to 
clear up. When, for the first time, in the month of March of last year, the Mexican question 
was brought forward in this assembly, certain explanations were given, and recalling them 
yesterday, the eloquent orator to whom I reply has offered us a strange dilemma : " Either 
you have deceived the Chamber," said he, to us, " or you did not know all." 

Has he well weighed the import of such words? To deceive the Chamber! If the 
Emperor's ministeis were capable of such an infamous proceeding they should have been 
impeached. [Good, good.] I am not aware that the rectitude of my political life has given 
any one the right to throw such an imputation on my character. [No, no ; good, good ] 

But we might not have known all. Do you clearly understand the meaning of this? 
This tends, on the one side, to bring into discredit with this assembly the authoritative 
declarations of the government, to ruin its just authority, to destroy the faith which you 
have in it; it tends, on the other hand, to throw back upon him who honors us with his 
confidence and his instructions such insinuations as, I am sure, you would not accept. 
[Good, good ] 

We know what we ought to have known ; we said what we ought to have said. Recall 
to mind the facts. 

I know well that, from the very first day, the efforts of the opposition have been directed 
to drown the popularity of a necessary chastisement in the unpopularity of the gratuitous 
foundation of a foreign throne. It was requisite for this purpose to substitute for the 
reminiscence of the violences of which our fellow-countrymen have been the object, for 
the reminiscence of treaties violated, the prejudice of an enterprise in which all motives of 
national interest would have been effaced ; it was necessary to endeavor to persuade France 
that it was demanded of her to sacrifice her children, to expend her treasures, solely to 
found a throne for an archduke of Austria. But never, as you know well, has this acces- 
sory and conditional scheme, subordinate to the wishes of the Mexican people, been either 
the exclusive motive or purpose of the expedition undertaken. 

In this discussion the honorable orator to whom I reply put forth, in effect, the assertion 
that France was disinterested in the affair, that entire satisfaction had been assured to her, 
and that the expedition was undertaken with the sole view of erecting a throne in Mexico 
and seating on it a foreign prince. He cited certain indications from officers who had de- 
clared it. We replied that we went to Mexico to avenge our honor, to avenge our fellow- 
countrymen, to compel the execution of treaties, to obtain the reparation due to us, which, 
whatever he may say to the contrary, Juarez was unwilling to accord to us. And then we 
added : " If the Mexicans, weary of the tyranny from which they suffer still more than we 
do, possess yet any germ of energy, if they have not been completely enervated by the 
forty years of anarchy and tyranny which weigh upon them, if they desire to repress all 
those revolutionary and counter-revolutionary hordes which harass and oppress them, 
profiting by the occasion which we are going to offer them, if they wish to endeavor to 
found a regular and reasonable government, they can reckon on our whole moral support ; 
we will applaud their efforts, we will prosecute with our best wishes the re-edification of 
the social edifice in their unhappy country. We indicated plainly, as the first step in our 
policy, the desire to avenge the honor of France, the blood of her children, and to obtain 
reparation for all injuries done ; and then, as a second step, in the interest also of the 
guarantees which we had the right to demand, the reorganization by the Mexicans them- 



154 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

selves of a regular, responsible government, capable of respecting plighted faith. If Mexico 
can give herself and us this fundamental guarantee she will have, I repeat, our moral 
support, onr approbation, our applause, and we shall be happy to have given her the occa- 
sion for the resurrection of a great and beautiful country, plunged in misery for so many 
years. Here is our reply. [Good.] 

In what have we concealed the ideas of the government ? Read all the proclamations 
that from the first day to the present moment have emanated from the French govern- 
ment. When I spoke in the month of March last you had before your eyes the instructions 
given by our minister of foreign affairs ; they were clear, plain, precise. Iti the first place, 
our interests ; in the second place, the desire for the organization of a real, effectual Mexi- 
can government. The Emperor, in his memorable letter to General De Lorencez. wrote 
those noble words which you have applauded : "It is against my interests, my origin, and 
my principles to impose any government whatever on the Mexican people ; let them choose 
in full liberty the form that suits them." Afterwards General Forey made the same 
declarations ; and I myself, in the month of June last, declared to you, as the last possible 
consequence of the line of conduct which we intended to pursue: "We appeal to the 
Mexican people, and if that people, free to vote as it pleases, decides even for the govern- 
ment of Juarez, well, be it so ; let its wish be accomplished." 

How, then, can we have deceived the Chamber ? How have we ever concealed both the 
principal purpose and the conditional hypotheses ? If, in these contingencies, Mexico hap- 
pened to desire a monarchy, its possibilities have not remained unprovided for. Thus wc 
have arranged everything in its proper place. We have not given a contingent hypothesis 
precedence of our own interests, for when a policy is pursued in the name of one's own 
country, it is by the interest of one's own country that we must commence. [Good, 
good. J 

The expedition being thus resolved upon, its object being determined, the ulterior hypoth- 
esis of a foreign monarchy being reduced to its just value, the accords of the three powers, 
the measures for execution, and the military concurrence being regulated, what had we to 
do ? The instructions, with which you are acquainted, specified clearly the course to be 
pursued. In these instructions of the 12th of November, if I remember right, it was said : 
"You will renew your ultimatum" — we had already made several, all without result — 
"you will renew your ultimatum, and then, the ultimatum being presented, you will not 
permit yourself to be diverted by delays and evasive promises. If the government of 
Juarez evacuates Vera Cruz," as it has clone, "if it seeks to establish a void around you, 
if it seeks to draw you by artifices more or less skilful into the loss of precious time, you 
will avoid falling into this snare, and immediately take the most vigorous measures." 

There were, gentlemen, grave reasons for recommending this active and resolute attitude. 
Our troops were arriving in Mexico in the month of January ; we had before us, as a suit- 
able season for transportation and war, January, February, March, and perhaps a few days 
of April. We knew peifectly that if at that period things were not consummated the 
tyranny of Juarez would receive a redoubtable and almost invincible auxiliary, the black 
vomit. We knew very well that it was necessary, in those few words, to characterize justly 
the cunning of that government as well as its violences, and to succeed in imposing upon 
it the solution of the question ; there was no time to be lost. Behold under what inspi- 
rations the expedition set out and arrived at its destination ! 

The honorable orator to whom I reply has recalled the words which I uttered in the 
month of March, and in which I expressed my impression that our troops had already 
occupied the city of Mexico, and he added that the words were ahead of the soldiers. 
The soldiers would have been as quick as the words if the plan of the Emperor's govern- 
ment had been followed out. The Mexican government, at that period a prey to the most 
complete anarchy, without any effectual means, without any resources of consequence, 
offered no kind of resistance, and if, without being stopped by vain delays, the Spanish and 
French troops hail marched upon the city of Mexico, they would have arrived there quicker 
than my words. [Good, good.] 

See what a humane prudence had foreseen in France ; it had calculated that a corps d'armee 
of about 12,000 men, supported by fleets girding the sea-coast, and having three useful 
months before them to bring an anarchical and disorganized government to a sense of 
reason, could, without sti iking a blow, or by the mere force of its courage, rapidly reach 
the city of Mexico. How has it happened that such prognostications have not been real- 
ized ? How has it happened that this expedition, which the most far-sighted prudence 
had planned, both as to diplomatic agreement and military effectivity and means of execu- 
tion, how has it happened, I Bay, that this expedition has momentarily but so unexpectedly 
miscarried ? It is well to recall it to the Chamber. On the soil of Mexico the manage- 
ment of the affair was necessarily intrusted to the three plenipotentiaries, and there was 
manifested from the very first days a .singular divergence of their respective opinions. 

Fnmce had proclaimed, Spain and England had recognized with her, that the govern- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 155 

ment of Juarez was a government without faith, without consistency, without guarantees ; 
that it was impossible to treat seriously with it. The experience of many years, and espe- 
cially of the last year, demonstrated that Mexican governments promised and never kept 
their promises. The three powers had recognized that force alone could master such a 
condition of things, and yet their representatives, having scarcely landed on the soil of 
Mexico, commence by recognizing the very government which had rendered itself unworthy 
of recognition, and by negotiating with it, when all negotiation had been recognized as 
useless, and all engagement on its part as illusory and superfluous. The treaty of La 
Soledad opens with this singular declaration, which I recall to the attention of the Chamber: 

lt Preliminaries agreed upon letween the Count of Reus and the 3Iinister of Foreign Affairs of the 

Republic of Mexico 

" 1st. Admitting that the constitutional government which at present directs the affairs 
of Mexico has manifested to the commissioners of the allied powers that it has no need 
whatever of the assistance so kindly offered to the Mexican people, as having at its own 
disposal sufficient elements of force and public opinion to maintain itself against all intes- 
tine revolt, the allies, therefore, deem it their duty to enter upon the way of treaties for 
the purpose of drawing up the claims which they have to make in the name of their 
respective nations." 

Thus our troops depart to combat Juarez, to impose on him by force our terms of satis- 
faction ; our troops depart knowing that no faith can be placed in his promises ; they go 
there to compel him to justice, and the first act of our representatives is to accept his ironical 
acknowledgments for a concurrence of which, he says, he has no need in order to maintain 
himself, and to enter into negotiations with him. Was that the policy of B'rance? Was 
that in accordance with the instructions which had been given? Was that the policy pre- 
arranged with our allies? And that very same treaty of La Soledad, which recognized the 
government that our expedition purposed to combat, which accepted the faith of those 
whom we attacked as perjurers, that treaty adjourned to the 15th of April the opening of 
negotiations ; that is, if they did not come to an agreement, and if the negotiations did 
not give necessary guarantees, the time for effective military action was passed, the season 
of rains and fevers was come, the roads were impassable, sickness decimated the soldiers, 
and war became impossible. And you are astonished when a conduct so dissimilar to that 
prescribed was adopted ; you are astonished that the enterprise has not had the fortunate 
and rapid solution that it ought to have, and you throw the responsibility of it on those 
whose contrary prescriptions had regulated all with prudence and wisdom enough to bring 
things to a speedy and happy conclusion. [Good, good.] 

Such is the true state of' the case. The Emperor's government, as soon as it learned 
this strange magnanimity, seeing that the war would afterwards become impossible, and 
that there would result a prolonged and pernicious sojourn of our troops in the country, 
pronounced, in the Moniteur, a formal sentence of disapprobation on that unfortunate 
treaty, and by new despatches reminded those to whom it had given its first instructions 
that they had not gone there to negotiate uselessly with a perjured government, but to 
impose on it promptly, by its own full consent or by force, the will of our country. [Good, 
good.] 

These new instructions reminded our representatives of the necessity of proceeding en- 
ergetically, and of profiting by the little space of useful time yet remaining. And it was 
then that occurred that profoundly unexpected decision of Spain, withdrawing her troops, 
with the approbation and at the suggestion of the minister of England. 

I have not to discuss that determination now. At Madrid, eminent men, speaking in 
view of the interests of their country, such as Mon, Bermudez de Castro, Concha, have ex- 
plained it clearly and completely. As for us, it little matters now. [Good, good.] Only 
remark this well : by that unexpected determination France has remained alone, passing 
suddenly from the second place to the first. She has remained, with a handful of men, in 
the midst of a country in which they had allowed time to tyranny and its aids to prepare 
themselves, to fortify themselves, to frighten some and arouse others. [Good.] 

She has remained there, in the face of the unhealthy season which was advancing — in 
the face of the vomito advancing with it. She has remained there ; and I ask this assembly 
if she could recoil? [No, no.] And if she had retired, what would have been the conse- 
quences ? Disgrace, in the first place, and our flag lowered in the eyes of the world. But 
what beside ? Whilst we pursued this energetic and courageous policy, what advantages 
have accrued to those who have followed the opposite policy? [Good, good.] Last year 
I read from this desk a letter, in which a minister of Mexico, M. Doblado. congratulating 
General Prim on his chivalrous conduct, wrote to him : "We are going to regulate all 
these great affairs in half an hour ; come, and in a few minutes we will have the glory of 
reconciling Spain and Mexico. ' ' 



156 ' MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

General Prim, as it seems, did not succeed iu treating ; but he sent his secretary to the 
city of Mexico, and that secretary, in a letter since made public, stated two things — one, the 
deep feeling of anger and despair of the Spaniards, abandoned in the capital of Mexico ; the 
other, that the treaty was impossible, Juarez introducing, as the first condition, that Spain 
should pay the expenses of the war. [laughter,] whilst, as to him, he did not recognize 
himself as at war with that power. [Renewed laughter ] Would you have counselled the 
guvemment of your country to accept such conclusions? I Numerous voices — No, no.] 

His excellency the Minister. The minister of England strongly approved the course of 
the Spanish plenipotentiary After having written to his government that he was about to 
leave Mexico and proceed to the Bermudas, in order not to give umbrage to fiance, and 
not to give occasion to think that he opposed her, he determined, however, to repair to 
the city of Mexico. [Laughter.] 

A voice. In the English style. 

His excellency the Minister. He has obtained a treaty. But what kind of treaty? It 
was easy to make promises ; they have also been made to us, many of them, and they havfe 
always been violated. The difficult) 7 was not to make Juarez promise ; the difficulty was 
to make him keep his promise What was to be done? Sir Charles Wyke accepted as a 
guarantee the money which should be furnished by the Unittd States ; and in case the 
United States should not furnish any, and should be unwilling to ratify the treaty by which 
a part of the Mexican territory was pledged to them, he obtained the substitution of Eng- 
land in the concessions which the United States would have nothing to do with. [Laughter.] 

I doubt whether such schemes as these would have been desirable to France ; neither have 
they met with the sanction of the British government. It has not been thought proper, by 
accepting the money of the United States, thus tacitly to sanction this consecutive and pro- 
gressive occupation of Mexico, pursued as a policy by the United States for twenty years, and 
which the government of Juarez only seeks to favor. [Good.] The British government 
refused its ratification. 

Between the three courses of conduct you can judge which has been the most profitable, 
which has been most honorable. Spain has withdrawn her troops, the principal nucleus of 
the force which was to combat Juarez; the arm}' of Spain has been re-embarked. In ac- 
knowledgment, they have plainly refused to reimburse her for the expenses of the war. 
[Renewed laughter ] England, with that firmness which she knows so well how to use in 
order to make herself respected, and which you will not take it ill that others should also 
practice as she does, [good, good,] England seems to have obtained a little more ; but she 
has refused to consent to those schemes of policy which involved her against her views, 
and, so to speak, the final result has been negative. As for us, it is true we have remained 
alone, small in number, with a handful of brave men ; thanks to the time lost, we have 
had to combat storms, fever, and Mexican bullets, but they have not inspired us with fear, 
and we have remained in Mexico. [Lively marks of approbation.] Under the influence 
of these unforeseen events we have been necessitated to lose the first military season, and 
endure that of rains ; but the second military season is come at last, and this time there 
is neither desertion of allies nor parliamentary attacks to hinder us from profiting by it to 
insure the triumph of our flag. [Bravo, bravo.] 

Behold, then, the state of the case very clearly. We might have imitated those who 
withdiew, but that our retreat, sad for our glory, would not have brought us, as them, any 
profit. 

Do you find, then, as has been asserted, that this conduct is rash, adventurous, foolish ? 
Is there, then, in all this, as was said the other day, anything dark? This is clear as the 
light of day. [Yes, jes ; that is true.] The French government planned everything with 
wisdom and prudence. An unforeseen divergence, followed by a re-embarkment yet more 
unforeseen, has rendered the immediate success of the expedition impossible ; but that which 
was deferred will not be lost. I know that to this rupture of the armistice of Orizaba it 
has been sought to assign motives which distort its character. 1 know that, instead of 
recognizing the resolute, politic line of national conduct, traded out by all our despatches, all 
our instructions, some persons have preferred to suppose other motives, and to endeavor 
to create scandal (That's so ; good] I shall not examine whether this manner of dis- 
cussing the affairs of our country, when our soldiers are in face of the enemy, is very op- 
portune. [Good, good.] I shall not examine whether it is not one of those occasions when 
patriotism ought at least defer the critical investigation of the opposition. [Renewed marks 
of approbation.] They have thought that, in spite of the military situation, they might 
i ndeavor to throw over the motives of the expedition impressions of blame and disfavor. 
They have thought that they might endeavor to reduce to what they call the interest of a 
rotten debt the cause for which the soldiers of France are at this moment combatting. 1 
should prefer to be excused from discussing this question at the present time ; but when 
honor is in question we must never shrink, whatever may happen. [Goo 1, good.] I pro- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 157 

ceed, then, to examine closely whether this calumny of the Jecker debt has had any influence 
whatever on the conduct of the Mexican expedition. 

Some persons wish to see in the expedition but two causes : a throne, whish was but a 
secondary contingency, and the Jecker debt, of which certainly the government have 
scarcely thought when the expedition was decided on. But let us specify the facts. When, 
at the arrival of our troops in Mexico, it was requisite to establish in the ultimatum the 
amount of debts due us, to the total extent of our claims, as examined and reported by 
our consuls, the minister of England opposed a theory which, yesterday, found a supporter 
quite unexpected to me within this assembly. [Good] 

Sir Charles Wyke pretended that only such claims should be admitted into the ultima- 
tum as were already liquidated by previous treaties What ! Our last treaty is of the begin- 
ning of 1861 Since that, ill-treatment of every kind, all sorts of outrages, robberies, 
onerous and vexatious impositions, have weighed down our fellow-citizens, and we, armed 
to avenge them, armed to make their rights respected, and indemnify them for their losses, 
we should not comprise in our demands all the sums and all the reparations due to us. To 
what purpose, then, is the expedition ? Our right was not only to compel respect for treaties 
and payment for the debts regulated by them, but at the same time to effect reparation of 
all the injuries caused since to our fellow-countrymen. Therefore, through our minister to 
Mexico, through our consuls at Vera Cruz, Tampico, and other places, we have caused to 
be made out a schedule of the sums due to our fellow-citizens. 

The honorable speaker to whom I reply is astonished at these numbers : twelve millions 
of piastres, sixty millions of francs! He finds this amount excessive He estimates, as it 
seems, at a very low value the blood of our fellow-citizens, and the vexatious of which 
they have been the victims. [Lively marks of assent from the Chamber ] The kindliness 
which he seems to entertain towards the government of Juarez ought not, however, make 
him forget that there is a government which concerns us more nearly, and that this gov- 
ernment is that of France. [Renewed approbation ] He contests the amount of these 
debts. Has he, then, had in his hand all the data requisite to estimate them properly ? He 
produced many of them, but of the kind which the Mexican government might have, and 
I doubt whether the Mexican minister of finance possesses more than he. [Laughter.] He 
has made up in the greatest detail (he account of the various payments made into the 
Mexican treasury. It would not have been bad likewise to make out the account of the 
outrages suffered by our fellow-citizens, and of the sums examined and settled by our consuls. 
[Good ] 

He has told you that we regulated them with a good deal of stupidity. The expression 
is harsh. Just before, he accused us of having deceived the Chamber, or, of having been 
kept in premeditated ignorance ; now he accuses the government of stupidity ! We are 
not, I confess, accustomed to such language, [good,] and if this language goes to the ex- 
treme limit of the rights of the opposition, we may be allowed, and it will be easy for us, 
at least, to reply to it 

Who could best appreciate the injuries done to our fellow-citizens on the soil of Mexico, 
if not those who witnessed them, and who were charged by their country to attend to them 
and state them ? When a French citizen abroad is oppressed by any person whatever, to 
whom does he address himself ? To his consul or to his minister. When he has to make 
proof of the injuries which he has received, who makes the official statement of them, 
his consul or his minister? When he has a claim against a foreign government that has 
violated his rights, who is his intermediary agent, his consul or his minister? Who, then, 
•could know better than they the facts, the grievances, the character of the persons, the 
value of the injuries done, and fix the amount of them legitimately and fairly ? Do you know 
the amount of documents accumulated in the archives of the legation at Mexico, and 
in the archives of our consuls at Vera Cruz, Tampico, and elsewhere? They were counted 
almost by thousands, so fruitful and active in their misdeeds are the brigands of Mexico. 
And there was there such a mass of claims that, to make out the official report of them in 
bureaucratic style, all the consular personnel could not suffice. For all these grievances the 
.sum of twelve millions of piastres was fairly and conscientiously fixed It was done by men 
best acquainted with the matter. And what would you wish the minister of foreign affairs 
to do here ? Would you wish him to have all the documents, all the complaints, sent from 
Mexico, Vera Cruz, Tampico ? And how would he have estimated them ? Had he the wit- 
nesses at hand ; those who had seen the robbery, the assassination, the burning ; those who 
could attest the facts and determine the valuation? Were there not natural commissioners 
on the spot in the persons of the functionaries themselves who represented France ? Moreover, 
recall to mind, since you are so anxious for the interests of our enemies, that it was proposed 
to submit to a complete and definite liquidation all the main points in demand comprised in 
the ultimatum. Is not this always the way in which these things are done? Each time 
that an indemnity is imposed on a country by force, is it not settled in gross, then distrib- 
uted by a commission, which examines the titles of each one, and allows to each according 



158 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

to his rights? [Good, good.] This is wheat we have always offered — always understood. 
And, really, Mexico had no risk to run herein. It was impossible to impose on her pay- 
ments in ready money. It was necessary to grant her numerous years of delay, and 
accept long and successive payments on her custom-house and other revenues, and the com- 
missions would have plenty of time to verify anew and to liquidate all these debts ; and if 
a reduction should be made on the amount, to give Mexico the benefit of it without doing 
any injustice. And, in truth, how is it possible to present Fiance as seeking to speculate 
on claims made against an insolvent people ? How does it happen that people have such 
feeble confidence in the representatives of the government of their country, in their 
sagacity, in their honor, that, without proof, without examination, without documents, 
they should proceed to accuse them of having overcharged the amount of reparations due ? 
And for whose interest is this pretended overcharging? The whole was demanded exclu- 
sively for our countrymen, and for no one else than those who could justify and establish 
their right. 

There was, I know, a protest made by Sir Charles Wyke against the amount of our claims. 
We have not thought proper in this respect to be reciprocal. In the arrangements made 
by England with Mexico, as in all those made with other nations, for the reparation of in- 
juries done to her subjects, she does not seem to be accustomed to fall below what was legiti- 
mately due to her. [Appfobative laughter.] There are before the world numerous ex- 
amples on this point— the Pritchards, the Pacificos, and many others. I cannot blame the 
British government for making the balance, if needs be, incline on the side of its country- 
men. It is well, thinks it to itself, that the world should be intimately persuaded that an 
English citizen is not to be touched with impunity. 

Well, gentlemen, that which England puts in practice I consider wise, worthy, patriotic, 
politic for us to practice also. [Good, gocd.] 

To sum up in brief, with regard to the amount of claims, the honorable gentleman to 
whom I reply was not informed, and we are. Moreover, no injustice was possible, for 
liquidation was offered, legitimate, conscientious, and fair liquidation. But in addition, 
gentlemen, remark that the British government itself has repudiated the pretensions of her 
representative, and acknowledged, on our calling attention to the subject, that none of the 
plenipotentiaries had any control over the amount of the claims of his colleagues, and 
this is the doctrine always put in force by England. When we accompanied her to China, 
when our flags floated there together and were even planted on the walls of Pekin, there 
were likewise indemnities to provide for and exact ; England preserved her freedom of 
action, as we did ours. The facts, therefore, are in conformity with principles, and no 
novelty is practiced in this respect. [Approbation in the Chamber.] But I am aware that 
out of the mass of these legitimate claims some have wished particularly to bring forward 
one on which they hoped skilfully to rivet the attention of France and of the Chamber, and 
thereby cause all the rest to be forgotten. By means of the Jecker debt, they have striven 
to agitate the minds and excite the indignation of the public and make them suppose I 
know not what shameful imputations. These imputations, also, it is necessary to refute. 
[Good, good. Numerous voices: Rest awhile, rest awhile.] 

(The Chamber takes a recess for a quarter of an hour. On assembling again the piesident 
announces that the minister without portfolio is entitled to the floor for the continuation 
of his speech.) 

M. Billault, minister without portfolio. It will be easy for me, gentlemen, to show 
that the Jecker debt has had no influence whatever either in the declaration of war or in 
the rupture of the armistice of La Soledad. But that would not suffice for me ; and it is 
necessary that, although it has had absolutely no influence on the course of events, this 
debt should itself be well known. 

There is one thing which strides me and makes me grieve for my country, [movement of 
attention :] it is the levity with which the most unseemly calumny alleged is willingly 
accepted as true. [Good, good ] It seems that the enunciation or imputation of any 
lamentable fact, made especially against persons in elevated station, is one of those strokes 
of good luck which make the joy and the satisfaction of every one. [Good, good ] And 
yet, in the end, when we look each other face to face, we know well what sentiment of 
honor animates us. We know well that we should respect each other reciprocally, and 
and that it is for no one's interest to bespatter his neighbor to-day with mire which will 
fall back on himself to-morrow. [Good.] Yet the people of France, so wonderful in their 
intellectual vivacity, are so constituted that the slightest insinuation of this kind goes on. 
grows big, and makes its way ; and then, when the truth comes, it finds the minds of 
men either prejudiced or indifferent, and of that which they have accepted to-day they 
will not deign to hear the refutation to-morrow, or to think at all some days from hence. 
Governments are spared still less than individuals ; but on them more than on any one it 
is incumbent to wage inexorable war with calumny. Honor is the life of the individual, 
but it is still more so the life of governments. [Good.] And in France a government 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 159 

that would not be jealous to excess of its honor would not long govern its country. 
[Enthusiastic and repeated applause ] So, then, let us enter on the facts plainly. 

It has been said, or at least we can conclude from what has been said, that in the Jecker 
affair there were some, I know not what, financial schemes of which the secret allurements 
might have influenced the determination of the government. What interest could the 
government have in this affair? How has it been produced? What advantages could 
flow from it? M. Jecker was a rich banker of the city of Mexico ; born in France, at 
Porentruy, when Porentruy was part of a French department, he was classed at the French 
legation as French himself. He was connected with all works of French beneficence iu the 
city of Mexico. [Interruption from the bench of M Julius Favre.] I understand your 
interruption, and I doubt not but that the investigations and informations transmitted to 
you from Mexico by the friends of M. Juarez are hostile to M. Jecker ; the men who 
despoil another, who throw him into prison, who drag him more than a hundred leagues 
under the deadly climate of Mexico in order to immure him in a murderous locality, 
whilst awaiting his expulsion, these men do not regard one calumny more or less. [Good, 
good.] We have been for some months inundated with Mexican calumnies ; we have seen 
in circulation anonymous writings, anonymous papers, odious imputations of all kinds, 
furtively making their way by means of an indefatigable propaganda ; it is the friends of 
our enemies in Mexico who thus send into France their correspondence and their poison. 
[Renewed and ardent approbation.] I understand that, when a person has the misfortune 
of having more faith in the assertions of Juarez and his friends than in those of the 
government of one's own country and in those of one's own fellow-citizens whom loug 
years of honor have invested with public consideration, he accepts all imputations ; but 
permit me to adopt a contrary course ; permit me to believe rather in men of honor whom 
I know than in men whom I know not, or rather whom I know too well for their misdeeds. 
[Good.] M. Jecker, then, was the confidential depositary of nearly all the funds of the 
French colony, the depositary of all the funds of the French benevolent institutions, and 
he was not himself unconcerned in these benevolent associations. His brother, who had 
left him a part of his fortune, had bequeathed 100,000 francs to the hospitals of Paris and 
200,000 francs to the Academy of Sciences. I do not mention this to throw any interest on 
M. Jecker; that is of little consequence to me ; but what is of consequence to me is that 
it should be known that he was no less worthy of interest than others, and that if his 
character of Frenchman was disputable, the French engaged in consequence of their con- 
tract with the Mexican government, and who had their interests involved, had no less 
right to the protection of their country. 

And what was the contract ? Let us see. The regular government of Mexico under 
Miramon — and I say the regular government because it was at Mexico recognized by all 
the European powers, and they had their representatives near it — the government of 
Mexico, in 1859, fifteen months before the assistance of the United States rendered the 
overthrow of Miramon possible to Juarez, that government made a loan ; this loan was 
negotiated at the nominal figure of fifteen millions of dollars with the Jecker house. 

It has been asserted that the Jecker house, in its negotiation of this loan, imposed most 
onerous and usurious conditions. It is not my duty, in any way whatever, to justify the 
means of credit employed by successive governments at Mexico, and when the minister of 
England calculates at 12 per cent, the interest on the debts due to his countrymen, I 
acknowledge that high rates of interest are familiar to that country ; I acknowledge, like- 
wise, that a banker who has the boldness to lend to the government in a country in which 
fifty governments have succeeded each other in the space of forty years, such a banker is 
naturally induced to impose high terms. 

I admit, then, that Miramon, on the one side, and Jecker, on the other, made a loan of 
which the conditions were very onerous to the Mexican nation, but that is not the question. 
In order to attract the public into the scheme, the fifteen millions of Jecker bills were, by 
decree of the President of the Mexican republic, declared admissible, as a fifth part, in the 
payment of custom-house duties on all merchandise imported into Mexico. Now, as in 
consequence of the enormous depreciation of all Mexican securities, far from being nego- 
tiated at par, the Jecker bills were negotiated at a discount of from 70 to 75 per cent, of 
their nominal value, it was an advantage to pay 100 francs to the custom-house of the 
Mexican government in a paper currency bought at 25 or 30 francs. Consequently, all 
French and other merchants, who had to import into Mexico goods subject to duty, 
hastened to buy these bills in order to enjoy that advantage, and to pay 25 francs instead 
of 100 francs on the exorbitant duties imposed on foreign articles of commerce. Every 
Frenchman or other foreigner who, having goods to import, had tfought these notes to pay 
the duties, was interested in having them continue to be received conformably with the 
engagement made ; those same Frenchmen or foreigners who had further importations to 
make were also interested in the maintenance of that arrangement, since it was for them 
quite an important reduction of duties. 



160 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

You see plainly, then, French or foreigner, commerce was seriously interested to have 
the Mexican government, which had treated with Jecker, carry into effect in regard to 
third persons, holders of these bills, the agreements to which it had subscribed. 

This obligation was by so much the more binding on the Mexican government, as it had 
officially bi ought to the knowledge of all the foreign legations the stipulations of the 
contract which it had made with Jecker, and it showed that this was a diminution of 
duties to which it thus consented, and the sixth article of its decree of January 30, 18 GO, 
was to this effect : '-As a guarantee of the execution of the preceding decree and of the 
decree of the 29th of October last, the supreme government will transmit copies of them 
to friendly legations, in order that they may inform in the ordinary way the subjects of 
their respective governments of the favor accorded to them by the government of the 
republic, and thereby give them the assurance that the present decree will be strictly 
executed." , 

It was on the faith of these promises made to the diplomatic body itself that these notes 
attained circulation and that foreigners received them. Had we any interest in compelling 
lespect, as far as regarded the Freuch holders of those notes, to the promise made to the 
public ? [Yes, yes ; that's evident. Good] Had we any interest also in the main- 
tenance of that agreement during the five years assigned for its duration, inasmuch as it 
caused a diminution of payment in the duties which our traders paid ? (Yes, yes. Very 
good.) Had we any interest in causing to be respected, as to the present, and in main- 
taining, as to the future, a state of affairs which mitigated the custom-house duties on our 
merchandise? [Good, good.] This is the first point. 

There is a second one M. Jecker, having suffered, in the agitations of the country, a 
stroke which compromised his solvency, assigned some of these notes in guarantee of sums 
which he had received in deposit from various establishments of French benevolence. 
Had we any interest to have those notes respected, which were the guarantee of a French 
institution t [Yes, yes.] In fine, M. Jecker, the banker of nearly all the French resi- 
dents in Mexico, (his house was considered as French,) had among our countrymen nume- 
rous creditors ; the active principal of that house likewise depended on those notes. Had 
we any interest in preventing this active principal from being reduced to nothing by an 
act of the dictatorial will of Juarez? [Yes, yes; that's plain] French interests, then, 
in this affair, were very plain and very evident. 

As to M. Jecker, he made an arrangement with the Mexican government which the 
honorable gentleman who last spoke finds onerous, and against which he defends the 
government of Juarez. Be it so; Juarez will thank him for this favor. [Laughter.] 

But what wrong has the French government done on this point ? Accusations are 
brought against it, and there are some expressions which cannot be let pass. 

Some persons have spoken of speculators concealing themselves behind diplomacy. 
Indeed, people are as fruitful in grave accusations as they are powerless to prove them. 
Awhile ago, the government had deceived the Chamber ; it had conducted matters with 
the most deplorable stupidity ; and now, behold, we have cloudy glimpses of speculators 
hiding behind diplomacy. Let us speak plainly ; that means, in good French, that 
diplomacy has been willing to serve the illegal interests of anonymous speculators. 
[That's so.] Well, I give to this assertion the most solemn and the most categoric lie. 
[Good, good] 

That there be about the government, that there be about Juarez, people dabbling in 
the base depths of their private interests, I know nothing of the thing, and would not 
be astonished at it. Do we not see, even in this country of honor and loyalty named 
France, in presence of a government that keeps no measures with improbity, do we not 
see too often in some miserable stock-jobbing operations men boast of efficacious intrigues 
and potent influences, in order to obtain results from others which in reality they will 
never obtain. [Good, good.] 

As for me, when I had the honor of being minister of the interior, I received vague de- 
nunciations of this kind quite frequently ; and of those who made them I demanded, in 
the name of Heaven and of my country's honor, to give me the least indication, the 
least trace, by which I might be able to verify the facts which they denounced to me and 
render full and entire redress. [Good, good.] My adjurations were fruitless, and I saw 
the accusations, when confronted with a perspicuous and energetic interrogatory, fade 
away and vanish as a miserable vapor. It will be the same here, gentlemen. [Good.] 

Much has been said about the seventy-live millions of the Jecker affair. Seventy-live 
millions ! What a magnificent pasturage ! What an attractive spoil for the speculators 
that are supposed to lurk behind diplomacy ! Here is, indeed, a mirage to seduce the 
vulgar ; but this spoil which you invent docs not exist. 

The seventy-five millions spoken of were in Jecker bills, negotiable at Mexico — negotiable 
at the depressed rate usual with the currencies of that government ; that is, at a discount of 
about 75 per cent, on their nominal value, and acceptable only in payment of custom house 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 161 

duties, without ever being otherwise redeemable by the Mexican treasury. A part of them has 
thus returned — I know not how much, and I would gladly ask the honorable gentleman, who 
knows the figures so well ; as to the rest, they are either partly in the hands of the mer- 
chants who procured them ior the payment of duties, or held in trust by the creditors of 
Jecker, or thrust into his own hands as he was seized, arrested, transported, imprisoned on 
the shores of the Pacific, dying, perhaps, at this moment from the effects of the brutal ex- 
pulsion and the forced journey which he has been compelled to undergo, but yet required 
to account, under the decree for the sequestration of his effects, solvent or insolvent. What 
possible speculations could there be in France on such notes under such ciicumstances? 
What is the possible magnificent affair capable of corrupting our diplomacy and our govern- 
ment? Mention it, and be specific in your accusations. [Good, good.] 

Now, gentlemen, that you know the facts, one word on the action of the government in 
regard to that debt. 

On the 31st of December, 1S60, at the moment when Juarez obtained possession of the 
city of Vlexico and overthrew Miramon, the rumor was circulated that the Jecker contract 
would no longer be canied out, and a considerable number of French merchants addressed 
a petition to the minister of France, in which they, with good reason, observed that the 
Jecker notes had been issued under the faith of engagements entered into by the state, and 
of assurances given to the legations, and that the advantages thus assured in commerce 
ought to be respected 

Whilst at Mexico the French, who were interested in the matter, drew up this remon- 
strance ; at Paris other French merchants, equally numerous and honorable, themselves 
engaged in commerce with Mexico, and aware that the destruction of these bills of credit 
would entail severe losses on their own affairs, addressed themselves to the minister of foreign 
affairs of France in order to make the same observations to him. Under these circumstances 
what ought our government to do ? Frenchmen in France, Fienchmen abroad, on the faith 
of a government recognized by France, had accepted notes of that state as payable at the 
custom-house Was it not a strict duty to make representations to the new master of 
Mexico and to remind him that the engagements of the preceding government ought to be 
kept? The French minister wrote, in consequence, on the 6th of Maich, 1861, to our rep- 
resentative in Mexico ; we were yet at that period ( n leims of friendship with M. Juarez ; 
we were willing to hope still that his government w< tild procure a little more security and 
order for foreigners living in the country. 

So, what happened? The minister of President Juaiez, M. Zarco, having entered into 
negotiations on this point with our minister at Mexico, objected the poverty of the republic, 
and the fact that the engagement had been made by their enemy to sustain the civil war. 
But we answered him, " The engagement was made by a government de facto existing, rec- 
ognized, having our minister accredited near it. Governments that succeed each other are 
responsible for the pecuniary engagements of their predecessors." [Approbation.] That 
is a fundamental principle which we cannot permit to be ignored ; it is the principle on 
which public credit and public faith repose in the engagements of nations. And M. Zarco, 
in the despatches which I have already had occasion to cite last year, recognized the prin- 
ciple, recognized the obligation of his government. Permit me to read to you on this 
subject one only of his letters. 

He wrote on the 4th of May, 1861, to M. de Saligny : " My dear sir : I am obliged to 
you for the confidential explanations which, by your letter of the day before yesterday, you 
have been pleased to add to your note relative to the Jecker question, and also because you 
have taken into consideration the difficulties and the embarrassments by which my govern- 
ment is surrounded, and all. that is most painful to it in the responsibility for the fatal heritage 
of the faction commanded by Miramon. 

"I am, likewise, much obliged to you for the efforts that you have made to induce M. 
Jecker to make some concessions. In reply to your letter, I have the honor to inform yon 
that, as soon as the question of principle involved shall be satisfactorily decided, the de- 
tails of execution will be easily arranged, according to the means of the government and its 
poweis on certain points, and taking, moreover, into consideration the propositions of M. 
Jecker, contained in your letter." 

Here, then, behold the negotiation entered on, the basis accepted, seiious hopes held out 
by the government of Juarez, and the duty of the French government fulfilled. This had 
no connexion with the Mexican war, which broke out only at a later period. Well, such 
being the state of affairs, when the war did break out, when the French were, in every way, 
more and more violently treated, when they were plundered, imprisoned, expelled, should 
the French government, in making out the long inventory' of the ignored rights of its cit- 
izens, not mention in its ultimatum that agreement of which the enemy's government itself 
had recognized the principle ? 

And what, after all, was demanded of the Mexican government? Was it seventy -five mil- 
lions in ready money? By no means; indeed, it was asked only to continue to execute 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 11 



162 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

fairly the engagements entered into by its predecessor— that is, to receive at the custom- 
houses, in payment of a fifth part of the duties, the not -s that hud been issued under that 
condition by the preceding government. 

Once again: there is no trace here of any pretended speculation. Recall to mind, more- 
over, what a spirit of benevolent equity presided over the establishment of all these claims ; 
permit me to remind you in what terms M de Saligny himself expressed himself at the time 
of estimating the various debts. He had, with advice, made out a report of them as con- 
scientiouslv as possible : he gave their details, then he added, in his despatch of January 
20, 1862: 

' ' If your excellency thinks proper to adopt my views on this subject, (the liquidation of the 
debts,) I would propose to refer all questions relative to our claims to a commission, com- 
posed of his Majesty's consul at Vera Cruz, the secretary of the imperial legation, and a 
merchant. This scheme would, among other advantages, in my eyes, have that of re- 
lieving the responsibility of the Emperor's minister — a responsibility more weighty and 
more dangerous in Mexico than any where else, and to place his person above the recrim- 
inations and attacks of cahunny." 

And yet, on the question of the Jecker contract, it was not, I repeat, in the case at all 
to ask a dollar of the government of Juarez, it was not in the case that it should pay out 
the smallest sum ; there was question merely that it should maintain the decree admitting 
the notes created by its predecessor in payment of custom-house duties ; and yet the ques- 
tion being thus placed, the Emperor's government does not the less accept the propositions 
of M. de Saligny, and in several despatches it expresses the desire that all the debts due to 
France should be liquidated by a commission, that nothing should be paid out of the Mex- 
ican funds but what might be legally due from it, what might be regularly verified. 

Such are the facts ; and yet you were told yesterday, " Behold what examples of fairness 
France is going to give the New World." I confess that such words pronounced in this 
assembly have deeply grieved me. What! People in Mexico, on the authority of what is 
said here, may make a like imputation on the honor of our nation ! They can say, " It is 
not we who accuse it of injustice and disregard of right ; it is its own citizens ; it is among 
its own citizens — men eminent for their talents, and elevated by the public vote to the 
representation of the country." 

Indeed, when the facts are reduced to what you know now, those words, in my opinion, 
weie very unjust and much to be regretted. [Approbation ] 

I forgot one detail which I must not pass over. [Louder, louder.] 

They spoke yesterday of some correspondence or other intercepted and published at 
Mexico, then numerous copies sent to Paris. The government of Mexico has sent many 
papers to Paris, many prints, many accusations of every kind. I thought that the calum- 
nies against the government of France had their principal laboratories in certain neighboring 
countries. I see now that another laboratory, a powerful and active focus, is established 
beyond the seas. Hatred against the Emperor's government inspires certain ultra demo- 
crats with a fertility of accusations and calumnies inexhaustible. I shall not deign to make 
any further allusion to this pretended document seized by a hostile government, intercepted 
by it, printed by it, sent by its care through the world, without anything to testify its value 
or its authenticity. 

I shall confine myself to reminding you that it is testified by our diplomatic documents 
that the party of Juarez has used all its efforts to sweep the whole French colony into this 
torrent of calumny, and that the great majority of this colony, in their indignation, have 
energetically protested. 

You have in the documents distributed among you the legal protests our countrymen 
declare, in spite of the menaces of Juarez that they wish to absolve the French colony from 
th'' responsibility of these odious manoeuvres. [Good.] 

Let us then put aside all these calumnies, and let us return to the Mexican expedition, 
for the Jecker affair was but an odious veil that was endeavored to be throwu over it. 
That affair, you see, henceforth is of no account in the expedition. It is of no greater ac- 
count in the rupture of the preliminaries of LaSoledad. That rupture dates from the month 
of April, and, as early as the month of January, the difficulty arising from the valuation of 
the debts h id been deferred by the plenipotentiaries by common consent until the solution 
was given by their respective governments Moreover, in the very first stages of the diffi- 
culties, our minister hid formally obtained leave to discard this debt for the time being, 
which General Prim approved, and which the English plenipotentiary, after having seemed 
to agree to it, finished by rejecting. 

Y. t M. de Saligny Ceased not to repeat, " Well, let us defer the Jecker debt ; let us not 
QSert il in the ultimatum ; let us not speak of it : we will afterwards see what is to be done 
with it." 

Let it not be said, then, that the Jecker debt, comprised in the French ultimatum in the 
month of January, lias bad any kind of influence on the conduct of the plenipotentiaries in 
the month of April. It hid none for two reasons : the first, bee ui-e M . de Saligny himself 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 163 

offered to defer it ; the second, because the difficulty of that ultimatum, being referred to 
the examination of the governments, in no way hindered collective diplomatic action during 
the two months that followed. 

Here, then, gentlemen, are the two things fjr which it was s>ughtto complicate, darken, 
distort, calumniate the expedition to Mexico : the enthroning, as the sole, or at least prin- 
cipal end of an Austrian prince on the one side, and a pretended, shameful speculation on 
the Jecker notes, on the other. Behold them reduced to their just value. [Approbation.] 

I forgot one final word. Yesterday they indicated as a special favor of the French gov- 
ernment the precipitate insertion in the Bulletin des Lois of the naturalization of M. Jecker. 

This precipitation, geutlemen, is presented in these terms : the decree of naturalization 
is of the 26th of March, and the excessive favor obtained by the petitioner is that the de- 
cree of the 26th of March was inserted in the Bulletin des Lois of the 31st of August, after 
five months ! 

I shall delay no longer on this point. I shall not examine what advantage Jecker could 
have in causing himself to be naturalized a Frenchman — he who was born in France in 
1812 ; nor how his naturalization could cover, to a certain extent, his own interests at the 
same time as those of other Frenchmen. Let him be naturalized to-day, to-morrow, or six 
months hence ; that makes no change whatever in the affair or in the injustice of the im- 
putations. [Marks of assent ] 

Now — and remark well what I say — it is not only the Mexican expedition that is attacked 
in the amendment submitted to you ; it is the whole policy of France; it is the general 
policy which you have approved, which you have received with acclamation, in which you 
have been intimately associated. It is in the name of a programme opposed and violently 
opposed to yours that the authors of the amendment present themselves. 

Yesterday you heard strange words ; you were asked, " Who are you, and what are your 
names?" 

The government to which these words were addressed is that which eight millions of 
votes have founded. [Good, good.] It- is that which a legislative body, nominated by the 
same number of votes, has supported for ten years, with its devotedness and its vote. 
[Good, good ] This government, of which you ask what it is and what is its name, is all 
France. [Good, good] She it is who, by means of her sovereign and her deputies, defends 
her honor in that New World and upholds her interests there [Good, good.] 

Oh, I know well that the authors of the amendment cannnot be of the opinion of this 
Chamber on the great things done by the Emperor with its concurrence ; I know well that 
there is not one glorious expedition to which they have not refused their support. [That's 
so ; that's true ] I know well that for five yeirs there is not an appropriation against which 
they have not voted. But that is no reason why the policy of the Emperor and of this 
Chamber should be thus treated. They qualify it as hazirdous, rash. Let us say one word, 
in passing, with regard to the general scope of this policy ; it is not only in reference to the 
vote on the amendment that this appears to me desirable : beyond this discussion, beyond 
the limits of this sess-ion, there will be rendered a solemn judgment on the policy of the 
country — a judgment not on your persons but on your votes — a judgment which will include 
the great acts in which you have shared. Now, it is not well for France, it is not well for 
Europe, it is not well for any one to let this gre it epoch be calumniated. [Good ] 

The policy which France has pursued, which they dare to call rash and adventurous ex- 
peditions, is not one of those fanciful p >licies that a sovereign can follow one day and 
abandon the next, according to his caprices, and to the detiiment of his country. There 
are, in a great nation reckoning fourteen centuries of existence, there are traditions, there 
are positions taken, there are necessities imposed, and it does not depend upon a govern- 
ment nor on its caprice to neglect the permanent interests of its country ; these national and 
traditionary interests the government can neither ignore nor forget. [Very good ] And 
the greatness of its ability, its renown, and its glory — that of those wli > associate them- 
selves with its course and sustain it with their vote, are proportionate to the degree in 
which it knows how to uphold them and render them triumphant. Let us see, then, 
whether they are found in these expeditions styled rash and adventurous. 

There are throughout, and especially in the east, considerable rivalries, difficult situations, 
easily inflammable, on which Europe has her eyes ] erpetually fixed. There are there some 
of those political combinations of which the hopes of settlement are often deferred, but 
never abandoned. It is there in order to restrain the different influences and resume our 
own that we mide our great Crimean expedition ; we have conquered there the prestige of 
our ascendency ; we have re-established in the world that position which, heretofore, for a 
moment depressed, has been, to the great joy, to the just pride of France, raised again with 
renewed splendor [Ardent manifestations of assent from the Chamber.] 

When, after this grand result obtainel, oar victorinis fleet and army traverse 1 the Black 
sea, we could, with legitimate satisfaction, compare this triumph to our isolation in 1840. 
[Very good.] Compare this glory to that check ; compare this predominance to that in- 
feriority. [Good, good ] 



164 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

We had Dearer home, in Italy, time-honored interests : a neighboring power had, little 
by little, by force, and by the skill of her policy, made her influence predominant over the 
whole Italian peninsula. A small corner alone yet remained ; but soon her standard threat- 
ened to be planted at the foot of the Alps. There was there a traditional rivalry, and so 
the necessity for our country to withdraw Italy from an influence singularly favored against 
us by the treaties of 1815. At a given day we crossed the Alps, and in two months the 
influence which centuries of open or hidden struggle had not succeeded in shakiDg disap- 
peared fiom the soil of Italy. [Gn;od, good.] Compare this glorious result with the occu- 
pation, but also with the evacuation, of Ancona. 

Thousands of leagues from France, in the extreme east, there is a country where formerly 
great possessions belonged to us. - where the French name was once powerful and glorious ; 
but all this splendor had been effaced ; some feeble reminiscences survived, nourishing some 
regrets for the past, but no hope in the future. Well, in accord with the power which so 
long had been our rival, we have penetrated into the neart of China to plant at the same 
time the symbol of the faith which we protect, and to open a world to our commerce : we 
have caused to be recognized there anew the glorious banner of France and the power of 
her arm. The east has resumed its ancient deference towards us ; we have seen within our 
avails the ambassadors of Siam and Japan ; between Singapore and China an immense and 
magnificent possession takes, under our flag, a rapid march towards a brilliant future ; our 
packets proceed, henceforth, to furrow those seas ; in face of Aden, at the mouth of the 
Red sea, they will find, likewise, under the flag of France a point of repose and for taking 
in supplies; Russia, in the northern part of the orient, gives to her influence and her pos- 
sessions a series of magnificent developments ; England, in the centre of Asia, has one of 
the most splendid s^ats of her power ; we can, by the side of these two rival and armed 
powers, contemplate, without much regret, the results obtained by us and fearlessly com- 
pare them with the negative results formerly obtained by the diplomatic promenade of M. 
de Lagrcne'e. [Approbative laughter.] 

Here are some of the great features of this policy of France which has been so fiercely 
attacked ; here are the luminous beacons by which the patriotism of our fellow-citizens will 
recognize the deputies who have voted for that policy [Enthusiastic approbation] 

Bv the side of these great interests we had otkeis also in Mexico; and it was not merely 
the obligation of enforcing respect for our countrymen and our rights ; there, also, great 
political vistas aie open to clear-sighted eyes ; diverse interests come in contact, and it is 
not opportune to neglect them. [Very good ] But to avenge our rights ignored by a ty- 
rannical fovernment and to raise the Mexican nation, if possible, were, also, works' of sound 

policy. 

And it is at the moment when our arms seek to realize this policy that some dare within 
this assembly to characterize the enterprize confided to the courage of our soldiers as rash, 
adventurous", and inspired by detestable motives. 

Under the circumstances I consider these words deplorable : happily, in opposition to the 
Wve isolated names which are subscribed to them, all France will arise — [Yes, yes] — jealous 
of her glory, jealous of the honor of her flag, careful of the protection which she owes to 
her children. 

You, srentlernen, you are, by the niillioDS of suffrages that you represent, the real orgaus 
here of the sentiments of the country. It is your part to decide solemnly on what has been 
-aid. The words, the sad words which you have heard, are going to pass the Atlantic 
rapidly ; and, I say it with grief, they will gladden, on the soil of America, all the enemies 
of the renown of France. [Good, good.] Well, gentlemen, let the same vessel that carried 
them, carry, likewise, the protest of an entire nation. [Bravo, bravo.] 

Proclaim, let us all proclaim togetber, in the name of the Emperor and of the people in- 
diseolubly united in a patriotic solidarity, let us proclaim that the war which we wage with 
;o is just and fair. [Yes, yes ; very good, very good.] 

Our soldiers go there to sustain our honor, to punish perjury, to avenge the blood of our 
fellow-citizens, to avenge the extortions of which they have been the victims. They go, as 
the Emperor has well said, to prove once more that there is in this world no couutry so 
distant that an attempt on the honor of France-may remain unpunished there. [Repeated 
anil more animated marks of assent ] May they, incidentally, if they can, scatter some 
seeds of order and liberty in that unhappy country, crushed down by fifty years of tyranny 
and brigandage. 

But when, after having fulfilled their duty loyally, bravely, to the glory of their couutry, 
when they return to their country I can assert, and you with me, that tiny will be followed 
bv the benedictions of those thousands of Frenchmen scattered over the surface of the New 
World and to whom tiny sball have restored security ; and on the shores of their native 
land they will In' received by tbe unanimous acclamations of a whole people sincerely 
grateful for tbe fatigues which they shall have braved, for the blood which they shall have 
spilled for the honor of France and the maintenance of her good rights. [Bravo, bravo. 
General acclamations. Thn e cheers follow the speech of his excellency the minister.] 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 165 

M. Jules Favre. I claim the floor. 

Numerous voices. No, no. Enough, enough. Let us vote. 

A Member. That's not fair ; let him reply to the minister. 

The President. No written regulation gives to a member of the opposition the right to 
reply to a minister, hut it is a traditional right. At present, whatever he the impatience 
of the Chamber, the government and the men who surround it have been so shamefully 
calumniated in this affair, that, in my opinion, what is most proper is to p rmit a reply. 
[General marks of assent ; good, good] 

M.Jules Favre Gentlemen, the expressions by which our honorable president has ac- 
corded me the floor present a double aspect. He has invoked a traditional usage which 
is not reproduced by any written text, and he has added that the men of the government 
had been calumniated, and that it was fair to permit a rejoinder. This last impeachment 
cannot reach those who fulfil their duty here. [Exclamations ] 

A voice. Why not? We fulfil ours also. 

M. Julfs Favre. And as to me, if there was, in what Mr. President has said, anything 
whatever personal to myself, I would protest most earnestly against an insinuation of that 
nature, I have invoked facts, I have submitted them to the judgment of the Chamber. 
The minister has made a reply ; I ask permission of the Chamber to make a few brief ob- 
servations. 

These observations, gentlemen, are necessary in order to specify the real state oft he case, 
and to allow you, after becoming acquainted with each of the elements of this great de- 
bate, to resolve it with entire intelligence. And, as you may understand, I have no in- 
tention of replying to that part of the discourse of the minister without portfolio, in which, 
in accordance with an ancient and well known system of action, employed by the supporters 
of the government against the members of the opposition, he told you that those who 
criticised the acts of the administration were factious. [Animated reclamations.] 

Several voices. That was not said. 

M. Jules Favre And that it behooved us. above all, to believe in the loyalty of its in- 
tentions, in the sincerity of its declarations, and in the justness of its views. I have said, 
gentlemen, similar proceedings are familiar to him who now has recourse to them, but 
they can have no sort of influence on your minds. [Murmurs of disapprobation] It is 
of the truth of facts that there is question. These facts I endeavored, in yesterday's ses- 
sion, to point out precisely, with the assistance of the diplomatic documents laid before us, 
and it is especially relying on these documents that I characterized, as I deem 'd it my duty 
to do, the Mexican expedition in its purpose and in its consequences. 

I said, as regards its purpose, that it had been concealed from the Chamber. I said that 
when last year the cabinet explained the intentions of the government in regard to this 
expedition, not only it exclusively intrenched itself behind this great and national reason 
of the reparation of the grievances of our countrymen, but also it energetically denied all 
kind of participation in any design involving a foreign prince. I do not wish to quote in 
this regard the texts that may at this moment be before your eyes ; you know them, and 
yon know that, when I interrogated the cabinet on this point, the cabinet replied in the 
most positive manner that those who had really believed such reports had been convinced 
that they were calumnious, that they had no foundation in reality. And at the very mo- 
ment when the minister spoke, he might have had in his hands the despatch of the min- 
ister of foreign affairs, avowing that overtures had been made to the Archduke Maximilian, 
and that these overtures were accepted [Interruption ] 

Allow me, gentlemen. There is, then, in this regard nothing whatever, I will not say 
refuted, but shaken, in the assertions which I made In the session of yesterday an 1 in the 
judgment which I passed. 

Now, when the minister, striving to distort and misplace the question, [animated recla- 
mations,] repeats to you that the expedition has been exclusively undertaken in order to 
avenge the honor and security of our countrymen, when the minister imputes to the gov- 
ernment, of which they have gone to demand this satisfaction, the responsibility of all 
the previous acts, I take the liberty to remind him of two things : the first, that Juarez 
did not enter the city of Mexico until the end of December,. I860, and that most of the 
acts on account of which our reclamations have been addressed are anterior to that date ; 
and the second, which is no less important, that the same men who may have been guilty 
of those acts of violence, of those murders, of those assassinations, of those pillagings, 
are precisely those whom we now shelter under our flag, who march beside our soldiers. 
[Denials] 

You deny it, gentlemen. [Yes, yes.] Listen on this point to the despatch just awhile 
ago placed before your eyes by the minister, though only in part. I refer to that which 
bears the date of October 28, 1861, and which was sent by Sir Charles Wyke to his govern- 
ment. The minister read to you that part of the despatch in which it is said that the ex- 
perience of every day tends to show the impossibility of establishing a regular and stable 
government in Mexico, but he did not read the following : 



166 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

"Marquez is at some leagues from the capital with 3,000 or 4,000 men : be has pillaged 
lately about 850,000 from the mine of Eeal del Monte, a mine in which English capitalists 
are largely interested." 

And it is precisely Marquez, Marquez covered with European blood, Marquez who has 
been at times noted for his ferocity in his military executions, it is he who has come to the 
French camp, and who has been received by our generals. It is he who, at this very hour, 
with Almonte, with all the persons of the reactionary government, figures among those 
considered as our allies. 

I have, then, the right to say that not only the purpose of the Mexican war was not that 
indicated by the minister, [reclamations,] but also that when they impute to Juarez all the 
acts inducing this war, all the acts of pillage which are but the consequences of the disor- 
ders. [Increasing noise and tumult.] You do not wish to let me speak. 

Some voices. Yes, yes. 

M. Jules Favre I have to reply, and I ask the Clumber permission to do so in a few 
words, to what the minister has said concerning the ultimatum which I have described as 
having been one of the causes of the rupture of the negotiations. 

I have reproached our diplomatic agents with having acted without precise instructions, 
and with having sent to the Mexican government a note containing demands of an in- 
tolerable nature. On this point, has the minister's reply been able to satisfy your con- 
sciences ? 

Numerous voices. Yes, yes. 

M. Jules Favre If it is so, it is, I believe, because vou do not know the whole truth. 
[So! so!] 

I said, in effect, that when the ultimatum was diawn up, the claims for money to be 
made by the French government on the Mexican government had been inflated iu a man- 
ner extremely grievous [Murmurs ] 

A voice Let him speak. 

M. Jules Favre I added that the French minister had acl:ed in the matter without hav- 
ing previously the approbation of the head of his government. I supported this argument 
by reading the diplomatic despatches, with which you are acquainted. 

The minister replies to me that there never has been an ultimatum for 12,000,000 of 
piastres— that is, 60,000,000 of francs — and that the possibility was always reserved of hav- 
ing the claims examined by a commission of merchants. The minister is mistaken, gen- 
tlemen, and he is mistaken for these two reasons, which are equally explicit : 

First. Because in diplomatic language the word ullirnatum signifies a demand in which 
there is nothing to be retrenched ; it is necessary to accept it or to prepare for battle ; and 
when 12,000,000 of piastres were demanded as an ultimatum, it was 12,000,000 of piastres 
to be paid dowu. 

The second reason, gentlemen, and which is not less explicit, but which has, I cannot 
explain why, escaped the sagacity of the minister, is, that in the very ai tide in which 
there is question of those 12,000,000 piastres, certain debts are reserved to be taken into 
consideration by commissions. See, in effect, how this reserve is conceived. After setting 
down as an ultimatum the payment of 12,000,000 of piastres, it continues : "Saving the 
exceptions stipulated in articles 2 and 4, below. As far as concerns matters that have hap- 
pened since the 31st of July last, and for which an express reservation is made, the amount 
of the claims against Mexico to which they may give rise will be afterwards settled by the 
plenipotentiaries of France." [Increasing tumult and murmurs.] 

So the 12,000,000 of plasties are an ultimatum ; it is a debt which must be immediately 
paid, under penalty of a declaration of war ; and as for other debts, they will be the ob- 
ject of a future liquidation. 

I had the right, then, gentlemen, to reproach the government with having thus made a 
means of war. [Oh ! eh ! renewed interruption ] 

As far as concerns the Jecker bills, the minister lias offered explanations very ingenious, 
undoubtedly, yet containing extremely important concessions, which must necessarily 
alarm your consciences. 

The minister reproaches me with having made use of documents sent by the government 
of Mexico. 

There was, it seems to me, a very simple means of preventing such an inconvenience : 
it was to furnish the committee on the address with all the documents at the disposal of the 
minister ; for when the minister asserts his ignorance of the details of this Jecker debt, he 
asserts a fact which, for my part. I have considerable difficulty in believing. [Murmurs of 
disapprobation.] 

It is impossible that the minister Bhould not have in his hands all the data relative ti 
this affair. He has sail himself, and he was right, that it was of such a nature as to 
throw a disagreeable obscurity over our negotiations. 
Several voices lie did not say that. 
M. Jules Favre. Why did he. not furnish all the information in regard t" it .' [Increas- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 167 

ing disorder.] The examination of that affair might have had an opposite result ; he has 
made none, and thereby he gives us the right— what do I say 1 he makes it a duty for us to 
institute all possible investigations. From the investigations which we have caused to be 
made, it appears — and this is atrocious — that the usurious rate at which the loan of 1859 
was effected has been kept concealed. The minister has been compelled to acknowledge 

[To the vote ; to the vote. Long interruption.] You are not willing that people 

should speak to you about these things ; France will judge, and I will remain silent. 
(M. Jules Favre sits down.) 
Several voices. Speak ; speak. 
Some Members. No ; enough, enough ; to the vote. 

The President. I cannot hinder the Chamber from testifying impatience. I ask M. Jules 
Favre whether he desires to continue or whether he yields the floor. 

M. Jules Favre, rising. It is impossible for one as fatigued as I am, after the session of 
yesterday, to be able to struggle against systematic interruptions [no, no,] which have no 
other intention than to disturb me in the expression of my ideas. [Numerous reclamations.] 
Several voices Speak ; speak. 

The President. Allow me. I desire merely to protest against the accusation which you 
make against the Chamber. Yesterday the Chamber listened to you with such attention 
that you cannot accuse it of designedly interrupting you to-day. It is only very natural 
that a question which has engaged its attention for two days should weary it to a certain 
extent. [Yes, yes.] I cannot, on this point, direct the sentiments of an Assembly. I 
ask you again whether you wish to continue your speech or whether you yield the floor. 
[Speak ; speak ] 

M. Jules Favre. I understand very well the fatigue of the Assembly, and I ask a thou- 
sand pardons for prolonging it ; I ask it to believe that mine is still greater ; but this is a 
question of business, not a question of feelings. [Denials, confusion and disorder.] You 
see that I cannot speak, since at the least word you interrupt me. [No, no ; speak. Si- 
lence is restored.] 

I was saying, gentlemen, when I was interrupted in my explanations, that the minister 
was unable to conceal the disastrous terms on which the Jecker loan was negotiated ; only, 
by explanations deeply skilful, he has presented this affair before you as possibly having 
in some way a direct influence on the whole commerce of Mexico ; and in this way only, 
he tells you, France ought to sustain it. 

If it were so, gentlemen, if negotiations had been commenced under such conditions, we 
would never have, in this regard, the slightest observation to make to the government. 
But the facts as well as the documents completely resist the minister's interpretation. 

Documents, gentlemen ; what is the question" ? A contract entered into between the Jecker 
house aDd the Mexican government, a contract which makes the Mexican government liable 
for a sum of 15,000,000 of piastres, if Jecker proves that the notes have passed out of his 
hands or that he has furnished them in currency. I thought I showed in yesterday's ses- 
sion that he had furnished all the receipts expected of him by the Mexican government. 
I presented figures on this point which, it seems to me, deserved the trouble of refutation. 
Nothing has been said in this regard ; and if my reasoning stands, what is the consequence ? 
It is that all the holders of the notes of Jecker, on closing accounts, have a right to obtain 
of the Mexican government the nominal value of these bills [No, no ] 

You say no, and I say yes And do you know the means which I would propose to clear 
up this affair completely? It would be that, from now to the discussion of the Budget, 
the minister would please to communicate to the committee on the budget the Jecker docu- 
ments as well as the others, in order that there may not be either surprise or doubt possi- 
ble — in order that every one may see clearly into this affair, and know what has been, in 
reality, the part of each one concerned in the transaction. 

As far as concerns our agents, whom we are accused of calumniating, permit me to make 
this observation, which has certainly struck you : the conduct of the government towards 
them has been very singular. I do not reproach it with having, in the beginning, blindly 
relied upon their communications ; but, as soon as they were invested with its full powers, 
what did they do ? They made a use of them which has been here declared contrary to 
the interests of the country ; for the signatures of these agents are found subscribed to the 
treaty of La Soledad, which has been disavowed. Well, whatever praise the government 
maj r decree to itself, and whatever the complacency with which it speaks of its own acts, I 
ask the Chamber if it is reasonable, if it is just, if" it is prudent, to keep agents at such a 
distance who have thus compromised the interests of France. They have been invested 
with sovereign powers ; wbat use have they made of them ? I have proved that in the 
ultimatum, so far as concerns the question of the twelve millions and the Jecker bills, they 
have acted with a want of reflection, blamed not only by the opposition but by 
the minister of foreign affairs ; for the article 3, which has become the subject of discussion 
between the minister and myself, does not at all admit, as the minister just asserted, of 
any liquidation whatever of the Jecker debt. It is perfectly clear, and it contains the 



168 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

armed threat against the Mexican government of compelling it to pay the sum of seventy- 
five millions. 

" Mexico shall be bound to execute fully, fairly, and immedi itely the contract concluded 
in the month of February, 1859, between ths Mexican government and Mr. Jecker." [In- 
terruption.] 

Now, theminister has told you that the execution of this contract could only apply to 
custom-house duties. [Disorder.] Permit me, gentlemen, to tell you that nothing is more 
frivolous, nothing more inadmissible [Reclamations] There is no question, assuredly, 
in regard to the Jecker house, of the payment more or less enfeebled of custom-house du- 
ties, of concessions which the Mexican government might have made to the holders of the 
notes. When there is question of the execution of a contract, we should regard the end, 
Ave must see this end ; now, there is question of seventy-five millions claimed of the Mexi- 
can government. 

Behold, gentlemen, this affair such as it is. And it is this affair which I have had the 
right to qualify as shameful, because it conceals under the appearance of a debt due, a real 
usury. I have demonstrated with positive figures, not disproved, that Jecker furnished 
but an insignificant sum compared to that which he claims ; I have demonstrated that he 
wished to extortf rom the Mexican government, and that those who have associated them- 
selves to his course merit a solemn rebuke ; they have led the French government into a 
veritable snare. And it is not by recourse to subterfuges, but by positive explanations, 
that I have demonstrated that it has been sought to make the Mexican government pay 
seventy-five millions ; and as to what has been told us awhile ago by the minister, that 
the bills were for the most part in the hands of Jecker — that Jecker having failed, his notes 
were sequestrated, nothing is more inexact : the minister was ill informed ; we know it, not 
from the Mexicans, but from the French residents who have been included in the liabilities 
of the Jecker house. Jecker having been declared a bankrupt in the month of May, 1860, 
obtained, some time in July, a judgment replacing him at the head of his affairs, whilst 
according him sptranzas — that is, hopes for the creditors who will run after their dividends, 
but will never realize them. 

It is in this situation that Jecker negotiated with the F.ench resident minister, in order 
to have his contract become an object of express stipulation in the ultimatum. He was 
the holder of almost all these notes ; there were not 600.000 piastres in the hands of the 
merchants ; the greater part of these notes, or 14,000,000 of piastres, are in the hands of 
Jecker. Jecker may have been able to assign them at any price to traffic in them ; and it 
is precisely because there was under this affair a speculation, which was divined by the 
English minister, that it was brought to the notice of the minister of foreign aff drs, and 
the minister of foreign affairs, either in his 'instructions or in his replies, explained that 
when there would he question of liquidating this affair, they would confine themselves to 
French interests entirely. And it is here we come upon that momentous fact over which 
the minister seems to me to have glidtd with great rapidity. 

It has been declared that the Jecker debt caused a kind of uneasiness iu the consciences 
of the merchants. Explanations were asked ; the minister was alarmed himself ; he wrote 
to M. Dubois do Saligny that it was impossible to execute anything else than what con- 
cerned the French ; and then as the principal party interested in that contract was a stran- 
ger, a Swiss, in the midst of those negotiations, considered suspicious by the English and 
Spanish chanceries, haste was made to grant this man letters of naturalization, in order 
that he might be enabled to figure as a Frenchman, in order that he might be enabled to 
accomplish his work, and make the Mexican government the victim of his usury. Behold 
the truth with regard to the Jecker affair. 

Had I not, then, the right to say that our diplomacy has gone astray here, that this ulti- 
matum was without precedent in our history, and that, in consequence, the Chamber, which 
should take some position with regard to this expedition, was interested, in point of honor 
as well as in point of policy, to separate itself from that part of the negotiation .' 

As for the rest, I stop here. The minister his discoursed t i you in magnificent language. 
He has said that French interests were to be upheld in all quarters of the world : that wher- 
ever one of our countrymen nut a serious obstacle in his way, wherever his security or his 
fortune was compromised, the French (lag should u" to protect him Never, gentlemen, 
have we combatted such maxims; we Bhare in them with all our hearts; but what we de- 
sire, also, is, that the money and the blood of France should not he lavished on an ill-defined 
expedition which may conceal an intrigue : and this, gentlemen, is my list word [I'o the 
vote ; to the vote.] 

M. Mo.MKR DE LA BlZERANNE rises to Speak 

Fbom ai.i. bides. To the vote ; to the VOti . 
Sohb voices. Speak. 

M. Mo.mek he la Si/.kranxe. I ask permission to say a few words 

Numerous voices. No, no: the previous question. 

The President. The previous question is demanded by the meat majority of the Cham- 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 169 s 

her. The amendment is now to be put to the vote Ten members hiving demanded 
a ballot on the amendment, it is now to be proceeded with. The names of the deputies 
■who have signed the demand for a ballot, are : Messrs. Roques-^alvazi, Guillanmin, Char- 
lemagne, Count Segur-Lamoignon, Carayon-Latotir, the Marquis de Chaumont-Quitry, Da- 
beaux, Count de Nesle, Ledier, Corneille. 

Some Membees Explain to us the vote, Mr. President. 

The Presidext. The Chamber is going to vote ou the amendment ; it is plain, then, that 
those opposed to it will deposit a blue ballot, and those iu favor of it a white batlot. 

(They proceed to ballot ; then the votes are counted. ) 

The President The result of the c mnt of the billots is: Number of voters, 250 ; abso- 
lute majority, 126 ; for the adoption of the amendment, 5 ; against it, 245 Therefore 
the legislative body has n->t adopted it. 

The Presidext. I proceed now to put to the vote successively paragraphs 3 and 4 rela- 
tive to Mexico : 

"Paragraph 3. Your Majesty had concerted the Mexican expedition with two great 
powers whose co-operation would, undoubtedly, have had the effect of diminishing the- 
efforts of France. Left alone to pursue a necessary satisfaction, you were justified in think- 
ing and saying that the legislative body would not hesitate to second you." Adopted. 

" Paragraph 4. We hope for the happy and speedy termination of this war in which onr 
army and our navy give new proofs of their constancy and their courage, and we desire 
that there may freely issue from it a stable government, which would respect laws and 
treaties, and remain the ally of France." Adopted. 

The President I think that at this late hour it would be suitable to adjourn the contin- 
uation of the discussion till Monday. [Yes! yes!] 

The Chamber adjourned at 5J o'clock. 



Mr. F. W. Seward to Mr. Ptomcro. 

Department of State, 

Washington, November 6, 1S63. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of this date 
enclosing an English translation of the debates in the corps legislatif of France,, 
on the 6th and 7th of February ultimo, in relation to the Mexican question. 

Presenting you my thanks for the interesting and valuable communication, I 
avail myself of the opportunity to renew to you the assurances of my most dis- 
tinguished consideration. 

F. W. SEWAFvD, 

Acting Secretary. 
Senor Don Matias Romero, 8fc, Sfj., fyc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States ofA.merica, 

Washington, January 26, 1S64. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to remit to you, translated into English, the 
document s relating to the affairs of Mexico, presented by the government of France 
to the legislative bodies of the empire on opening the sessions of 1S63 and 1864. 

At first sight it will appear strange that I transmit to the government of the 
United States documents emanating from a government which is making war 
on my country, and which it publishes for the purpose of justifying this very 
war ; but as from these are deduced, in many respects, precisely the contrary of 
that which the French government desired to justify, I do not believe it pos- 
sible to adduce proof's more conclusive in defence of the cause of my country 
than those which emanate from the French government, and have been pro- 
duced by it in support of its policy. 

It appears that the imperial government, ordinarily quite sparing enough in 
the publication of diplomatic documents, knew that those published in 1S6-3: 
would result against those setting them forth, and desiring to avoid the repeti- 



170 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

tion of the same consequence, only gave to light in 1864 three official papers in 
relation to a matter in which France and the whole world had the right to ex- 
pect explanations less superficial on the part of the aggressor. 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Srward, Sfc, Sfc., fyc. 



Tite Minister for Foreign Affairs to Count Flahault, AmbatsaJor of Frame in London. 

Pabis, October 11, 1861. 

Monsieur le Cojite : The English ambassador has called on me to converse on Mexican 
affairs, and on the means of combining the action of our governments, in order to attain 
the common object which we have in view. Her Majesty's government, says Lord Cowley, 
is ready to sign a convention, together with France and Spain, to the end of obtaining 
redress for the offences committed against the subjects of the three nations, and of enforcing 
the execution of the obligations contracted by the Mexican government towards their re- 
spective governments, provided it should be declared in said convention that the forces of 
the three powers are not to be employed in any ulterior object, whatever it may be, and, 
above all, that they are not to interfere with the interior government of Mexico. The 
cabinet of London proposes_to invite the United States to adhere to this convention, yet, 
without awaiting their answer, to commence active operations. 

I have answered the ambassador from England, that I was perfectly agreed with his 
government upon one pofnt : that I agreed with Loid Russell about the legitimacy of our 
coercive action towards Mexico, as it only originated from our grievances against that gov- 
ernment, and that said giievances, together with the. means of redressing them, and of pre- 
venting them in future, constituted alone the object of an ostensible convention. I admitted 
also, without any difficulty, that the contracting parties might bind themselvts not to derive 
any political or commercitl advantage, to the exclusion of the others or of any other power, 
but that it seemed to me of no use to go beyond this, and interdict, in advance, the eventual 
exercise of a legitimate participation in the events which our operations might originate. 
The government of the Emperor no more than that of her Majesty would like to assume 
the responsibility of a direct intervention in the domestic affairs of Mexico, but thinks it 
prudent for the two cabinets not to discourage the efforts which the country itself might 
make to put an end to the state of anarchy in which it has been plunged for so long a 
time — letting it know that no circumstances whatever would bring about any support or 
assistance from abroad. It is evidently the interest both of France and England to see 
there establishe 1 such state of things as will secure the inteiest existing already, and favor 
the development of our exchanges with a country so richly endowed. The events just 
taking place in the United States add new importance and urgency to these considerations. 
In fact, we are led to suppose that, if the issue of the American crisis were to accomplish 
the definitive separation of the south from the north, both confederations would soon look 
after compensations, which the territory of Mexico, going to a social dissolution, would 
offer to their competition. Such an event could not be indifferent to England ; and, in our 
opinion, the only obstacle which would pievent it is the constitution of a government able 
to redress wrongs, and strong enough to stop interior dissolution. Whether the elements 
of such government should be found in Mexico we cannot assure positively. Our interest 
in the regeneration of that country does not allow us to neglect any symptom which would 
give hope of the success of such an attempt. As to the form of government, provided it 
would afford the country and ourselves sufficient guarantees, we bad uot. and I suppose 
England herself had not, any preference, nor had chosen any. But if the Mexicans them- 
selves, being tired of their trials, and decided to react against the disasters of the past, should 
draw up a new vitality from the dangers which threaten them— if, coming back and con- 
sulting the instincts of their race, for instance, they should rind in the establishment of a 
monarchy the repose and prosperity which in vain they have looked for in republican in- 
stitutions, 1 did not think we might absolutely to refuse to aid them, if there was a chance, 
bearing, nevertheless, in mind that they were perfectly tree to choose whatever means they 
might think best to attain their object. 

In developing these ideas in the form of an intimate and confidential conversation, 1 
added, that in case my prevision were to be realized, the government of the Emperor, free- 
gaged from all preoccupation, rejected, in advance, the candidature for any prime vi the 
imperial house ; and that, desirous to tre.it gently all susceptibilities, it would see with 
pleasure that tin- election <■!' the Mexicans and the assent of the powers should fall upon 
some prince of the house of Austria. 

Coming back to the point of departure in this conversation, and in order to resume, I 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 171 

said that the convention in project, in my judgment, should indicate the end of the agree- 
ment between the contracting parties — should say, in one word, all that which we were 
about doing ; but that, according to prudence and usage, we ought to abstain from saying what 
we would not do in case of uncertain events, which ought then to be met when taking place. 
Such is, Monsieur le (Jomte, the substance of the conversation which I have had with 
Monsieur the ambassador from England, and of which he is to give an account to his gov- 
ernment. I hope the cabinet of London will attentively examine these considerations, in- 
spired by the community of our interests in Mexico, and which the frankness of our relations 
made a duty for me to lay before it. 

THOUVENEL. 



The Minuter for Foreign Affairs to Mr. Barroi, French Ambassador at Madrid. 

Paris, October 15, 1861. 
Sir: Since the last time I addressed you I have had a conversation with the ambassador 
of her Britannic Majesty, which you will find abridged in the annexed despatch addressed 
to Count Flahault. (See the foregoing despatch ) As you will observe, the English 
government demands that, in the convention which it is about making with France and 
Spain, it should be stipulated that the three powers will not interfere in the domestic 
government of Mexico. In the mind of the Emperor such a declaration would be too abso- 
lute, and it would at least be of no use to have it figure in the conversation. You will 
find in my despatch to M. do Flahault the observation which, on this subject, I thought 
proper to present to Lord Cowley, and in which I have stated that if we are not to assume 
the responsibility of a direct action in the domestic affairs of Mexico, prudence dictated 
that we should not discourage in advance the efforts that the people themselves might 
make, with the moral support which the presence of our forces would afford them, to estab- 
lish a regular and permanent government ; that finally, while leaving the Mexicans in 
perfect liberty to make their own choice of government, the three powers ought not, for 
the sake of their interests, to interdict -themselves absolutely from aiding the Mexicans in 
the work of their regeneration. It is in this sense that I have been led to speak to Lord 
Cowley about the eventuality of the re-tstablishment of a monarchy in Mexico, as you will 
see in my despatch to M. de Flahault. 

The ambafsador of her Catholic Majesty having yesterday come to confer with me on the 
same subject, I have explained myself with him in the same manner as I did with Lord 
Cowley. I have told him, particularly in that which refers to the eventual return of a 
monarchy in Mexico, that this country was, before all, to express its will as to the mon- 
archical form and choice of a dynasty. I have also called the attention of M. Mon to the 
fact that the government of the Emperor, foreseeing such an eventuality, with perfect dis- 
interestedness resigned beforehand all candidature for any prince of the imperial family, 
and that he did not doubt that the other two governments entertained similar dispositions. 
Finally, that in regard to the choice of a dynasty in the eventuality indicated, we had no 
candidate to propose, but that should the fact happen, an Austrian prince would meet with 
our assent. Such a choice, in fact, would have, besides many reasons which exist to adhere 
to the advantage of taking away from the common action of the three powers all motives 
for collision or national emulation, leaving at the same time all its authority to the moral 
support which they would be called upon to lend to the Mexican nation. In one word, 
the three powers would have to act at present as France, England, and Russia acted to- 
wards Gretce, by engaging themselves not to accept for any of their princes the new throne 
erected through their common exertions. This precedent, in my judgment, could be brought 
as an example, the natural difference of the situation taken into consideration, and you 
may make use it of in your conversation with the minister of her Catholic Majesty. 

From what M. Calderon Collantes told you in regard to the action which, in his opinion, 
the three powers ought to take upon the domestic organization of Mexico, it seems to me 
that we are very nearly agreed on that point. I would learn with pleasure that the cabinet 
of Madrid entertained the same opinion as the government of the Emperor as to the eventu- 
ality of Mexico's returning to monarchy. At all events, we prefer to act in this affair 
towards the government of her Catholic Majesty with full confidence, and wc have thought 
that the friendly relation which now exists between both governments constituted for us a 
duty to deal openly upon the conduct which we ought to follow as much for the interest of 
Mexico as for that of the three powers. 

In regard to the participation of the United States there could be no difficulty between 
Spain, England, and ourselves. Lord Cowley told me that his government was of opinion 
that operations could be commenced without awaiting the answer of the American govern- 
ment, and I see by your correspondence that this is also the opinion of M Calderon Col- 
lantes. 

THOUVENEL. 



172 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The Fiench Ambassador at Madrid to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

Madrid, October 21, 1861. 

Monsieur le Mixistre : I have the honor to acknowledge from your excellency the 
receipt of the despatch which your excellency addressed t > me on the 15th of October. 

I have recently held many conferences with Marshal O'Donnell and Mr. Calderon Col- 
lantes upon the Mexican question The English minister in Madrid had already commu- 
nicate! to the government of Queen Isabella the project of a convention presented by 
England with the object of regulating the common action to be taken by the three powers 
in regard to the affairs of the Mexican republic. The Spinish government agrees fully with 
that of the Emperor about the objections made to it, and regards it as interdicting before- 
hand the very measures which it purposes to adopt. 

It is evident, in fact, that the limitations proposed by the English project to the eventual 
action of the three powers are of such a nature as to destroy all its effect. M. Calderon 
Collantes h^s perfectly understood, as your excellency has, that it would be illogical and 
impolitic to discourage in advance, through a premature and at the least an useless declara- 
tion, the efforts of the order-loving people who are in a majority in Mexico, and to whom 
the presence alone of the united forces of the three nations would give that moral ascend- 
ency which they have lacked heretofore, and without which it would be impossible to 
dominate the bad passions of the minority. 

31. Calderon Collantes sums up his opinion by saying that it would be better to abstain 
from going to Mexico than to go under the conditions proposed by the English project. 

BARROT. 



The French Ambassador at Madrid to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

Made id, November 6, 1861. 

Monsieur le Mixistre : As 1 have had the honor to communicate to your excellency this 
morning by telegraph, I have acquainted Marshal O'Donnell and M. Calderon Collantes 
with the wish expressed by your excellency, that instructions may be given to the com- 
manders-in-chief of the Spanish and French forces in Mexico, so that they may march on 
Mexico if the circumstances would seem to them favorable 

The Duke of Tetuan unhesitatingly adhered to the opinion of the government of the 
Emperor He declared to me and authorized me to inform you that very elastic instruc- 
tions, in fact almost discretional, will be given to the Spanish commander, and that he, 
besides, would wiite to him privately, authoiizing h'm to act in conformity with the 
measures which your excellency's despatch would indicate 

In consequence of a conversation which I have had on the same subject with M. Calderon 
Collantes, the first secretary of state has authorize i me to inform you that his own opinion 
is exactly like that just expressed to me \>y Marshal O'Donnell, and to confirm in his name 
the engagement just entered into with me by the president of the council 

RARROT. 



Ultimatum from the French commissioners in Mexico. 

The undersigned, representatives of France, have the honor, as stated in the collective 
note addressed this day to the Mexican government by the plenipotentiaries of France, 
England, and Spain, to draw up, as follows, the ultimatum of which they have received 
Orders in the name of the government ol bis Majesty the Era per or to demand the pure and 
simple acceptance by Mexic » ; 

ARTICLE 1. Mexico engages to pay France a sum of $12,000,000, at which amount are 
calculated the total French demands, consequent upon events which have occurred up to 
.July last, with the exceptions stipulated in articles 2 and 4, below. 

As regards those events which have taken place since th ! 31st of July last, and of which 
a special reservation is here made, the amount of the claims against Mexico to which they 
may give rife will be fixed hereafter by the plenipotentiaries of Prance. 

Art 2 The sums still due under the convention of 1853, which are not included in 
article 1, above, .-hall he juid to tin' rightful claimants in the form, and Allowing the 
terms of payment stipulated in the said convention of is.").; 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 173 

Art. 3. Mexico shall be held to the full, loyal, and immediate execution of the contract 
concluded in the month of February, 1859, between the Mexican government and the firm 
of Jecker. 

Art. 4. Mexico is pledged to the immediate payment of the $11,000 forming the balance 
of the indemnity which was stipulated for in favor of the widow and children of M Ricke, 
vice-consul of France at Tepic, assassinated in October, 1859. 

The Mexican government shall further, and according to the obligation already contracted 
by them, deprive of his rank and appointments, and punish in an exemplary manner, 
Colonel Rojas, one of the assassins of M. Ricke, with the express condition that Rojas shall 
not again be invested with any employment, command, or public functions whatsoever. 

Art. 5. The Mexican government also engages to search out and to punish the authors 
of the numerous murders committed upon Frenchmen, and especially the murderers of 
M. Davesne. 

Art. 6 The authors of the attacks committed on the 14th of August last against the 
minister of the Emperor, and of the outr iges to which the representative of France has 
been exposed in the first part of the month of November, 1861, shall be subjected to 
exemplary punishment ; and the Mexican government shall be bound to afford to France 
and to her representative the reparation and satisfaction due by leason of these deplorable 
excesses. 

Art. 7. In order to insure the execution of the above articles 5 and 6, and the punish- 
ment for all the outrages which have been, or which may be, committed against the 
persons of Frenchmen residing in the republic, the minister of France shall always have 
the right of being present, whatever the case at issue, and by such representative as he 
may designate for that purpose, at all proceedings instituted by the criminal courts of the 
country. 

The minister shall possess the same right with regard to all ciiminal prosecutions 
instituted against his countrymen. 

Art. 8. The indemnities stipulated in the piesent ultimatum shall bear a legal annual 
rate of interest of 6 per cent., to date from the 17th July last, and until their complete 
payment. 

Art. 9. As a guarantee for the accomplishment of the financial and other conditions 
laid down in the present ultimatum, France shall have the right of occupying the ports of 
Vera Cruz, of Tampico, and such other ports of the republic as she shall think fit ; and of 
there establishing commissioners designated by the imperial government, whose duty it 
shall be to take care that those powers which have a legal claim shall receive such funds 
as are to be levied for their benefit on the produce of the maritime custom-houses of 
Mexico, in fulfilment of the foreign conventions, and that French agents shall receive 
those sums which are due to France. 

The commissioners in question shall, besides, be invested with the power of reducing, 
•either by one-half or in a smaller proportion, according as they may judge advisable, the 
duties at present levied in the ports of the republic. 

It is expressly understood that merchandise which has already paid import duty shall in 
no case, and on no pretext whatsoever, be subjected by the supreme government, or by the 
State authorities, to any additional customs duty, inland or otherwise, exceeding the pro- 
portion of fifteen per cent, on the duties paid on importation. 

Art 10. All measures which shall be judged necessary for regulating the apportionment 
among the parties interested of the sums levied upon the produce of the customs, as well 
as the manner and the periods of the payment of the indemnities above stipulated., as also 
for guaranteeing the execution of the conditions of the present ultimatum, shall be framed 
in concert with the plenipotentiaries of France, England, and Spain. 

Vera Cruz. 



The Minister for Foreign Affairs to M. Dubois de Saligny, Minuter of France at Mexico. 

Paris, February 28, 1862. 
Sir: The dispositions which Sir Charles Wyke has shown on the subject" of our last 
claims, and which have been suppoited by General Prim, have put an obstacle to your 
presenting the ultimatum which you had formed with the view of settling the question in 
that which concerns us. I will take under consideration that ultimatum by and by ; first, 
I intend to examine only the conduct which 'you followed. Now, in determining from 
the beginning the whole of the conditions in what concerns us, to which the Mexican gov- 
ernment was to be required to assent, you proceed very reasonably, and in conformity with 
our intentions. 



174 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

It is to be regretted that your colleagues did not think it possible to adopt a similar de- 
termination simultaneously. The disagreement between you, I should think, has been 
brought about by a forced interpretation of the convention of London. It was wrong that 
Sir Charles Wyke and General Prim should have attempted, if I do not mistake, to see 
in those articles the right for each one of the representatives of the three powers to exer- 
cise a binding control upon the claims presented by their colleagues in the name of their 
respective governments. It bid never been understood, indeed, that we were to submit 
to a reciprocal appreciation of our grievances, and that the reparations demanded by the 
dignity or the injured interests of one of the poweis ought to be limited to only those 
which the other two would think themselves authoiized to admit. It was natural, un- 
doubtedly, that having to form ortr ultimatum in common, the different commissioners 
should acquaint themselves, mutually, with the grievances for which they were to ask 
satisfaction, but this preliminary communicition taking place only as a kind of informa- 
tion f or the better understanding of the representatives by no means carried with it the 
right for any of them to discuss these grievances. The convention of the 3 1st of October 
empowers the commissioners to determine about the claims, but as the text itself says, on 
the questions only which might arise from the employment and dis'ribulion of the_ sums of money ivhic.h 
were recovered from Mexico, taking into consideration the respective rights of the contracting parties. 
It is to each power that belongs the right to determine what it had cause to demand. 
Otherwise, if we had to reciprocally examine the demands drawn up on both sides, as your 
colleagues thought it would have to be, to expose ourselves to see several months pass, 
us it has been acknowledged, before having done with this task — wishing, besides, to pro- 
ceed in this way, one could not (and this has been the case) arrive at an ultimatum that 
would authorize all the discussions for want of preciseness, and therefore it would not be 
very serious. 

What I understand is, that, in the ulterior and effective regulation, it seems necessary or 
equitable to establish a classification of liquidation among the credits, to cause the pay- 
ment of some of them to be made before otheis, to examine their quality and importance ; 
but, what is necessary from the very beginning, is to affirm plainly and categorically what 
each power intends to obtain. 1 pretend, by no means, to say that there is an absolute 
obligation for the three governments tj consider every demand presented by one of them 
as carrying with itself a right to he supported by the other two. If, in that which concerns 
us, our condition surpassed the measure of those which the representatives of Great Britain 
and Spain decided as satisfactory for them, it would be necessary for us to reflect on the 
attitude which was more convenient to our interests, examining: whether they would not 
suffer much by the concessions made to maintain a common action of the three courts, or 
whether by remaining scrupulously faithful to the spirit of the convention of London, that 
is to sa)-, not seeking in Mexico any particular advantage or territorial acquisition, we 
ought to separately exact the satisfaction due to France 

I come now to the observation which the reading of the ultimatum you prepired sug- 
gested to me. lam not willing to make it the text of formal instructions I limit my- 
self to leave them to your own reflections, so that you may pay attention to them as far as 
right will allow it and circumstances may demand. The amount which the department 
had endeavored to value our claims did not reach that which your article first fixed, but. in 
the absence of sufficient details to arrive at them, a great latitude was left to you on this 
subject. And, although I would not invite you expressly to diminish any amount which 
S r Charles Wyke and General Prim should think to be exorbitant, you could be less rig- 
orous on this subject if that was to be an evident cuise of dissidence between the represen- 
tatives of the three courts. The amouuts to be charged to Mexico, besides the twelve 
millions of dollars of principal indemnity contained in the clauses of articles 2 and 4, 
seem to be of such a nature as to be considered as the most rigorously to be exacted I 
would bd inclined to think that if we fix a considerable amount «Of indemnity we could 
dispense with reparations of other kinds, although fully justified in principle that you 
should demand whether it be in relation to the deith of our agent at Tepic, or to the 
criminal attempts committc 1 against your person last August, express and additional clauses. 
I ask myself, also, whether the preciutions which you have thought proper to take under 
articles 5, 6, and 7, with the object of secuiing the judicial pursuit and the punishment 
of the different outrages to wh'c'.i our countrymen have fallen victims, would attain, in 
reality, the object which they aim at. and if it would not be more a Ivantageous to consider 
at once the indemnity stipulated as a satisfaction comprising all our grievances. 

In what concerns, specially, article 3. in relation to the Jeckcr affair, there is evidently 
a distinction to be made between th it which affects our own interests and that which is for- 
eign. When General Miramon published the decree which brought about his contract 
with the house of Jecker, the informatii n from the legation having stated that the foreign 
commerce derived a great relief from the financial measure brought about by this house 
to the Mexican government, it was natural to see a great profit in preventing as much as 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 175 

possible that they would go back on this measure and the operations which facilitated it. 
It is in this sense that instructions from the department have invited you, as you had 
already taken the initiative, to support the claims provoked on this point by the conduct 
of the Juarez government Now, the care would be, they say, on account of the opposi- 
tion made by Sir Charles Wyke to that which you had proposed on this matter, that the 
foreign commerce would not derive any advantage from such a contract, but that the house 
of Jecker would be the only one to profit by its fulfilment. I do not know how the case 
stands, but I call your attention to the importance of separating in this affair that which I 
would really compromise, the interests which it is our duty to protect from that which 
would only affect interests of a different character. The actual government would not 
consent to deprive our countrymen of advantages accruing from a regular measure taken 
by General Miramon's administration on the only ground that it emanated from an enemy, 
but on our side it would be unreasonable to be willing to impose on the actual-government 
obligations which Avould not essentially emanate fiom its responsibility as a government. 

THOUTENEL. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Ambassador of France at London. 

Paris, March 7, 1862. 

Monsieur le Comte : Lord Cowley has called to communicate to me the observations 
which the ultimatum, prepared in our name by M. de Saligny, and which the disposition 
shown by Sir Charles Wyke prevented him from presenting, had suggested to Lord Busseli. 
I send you a copy of said ultimatum, and I think proper to inform you of my answer to 
the ambassador from England, so that you may be enabled to understand it in the same sense. 

I reminded, first, Lord Cowly of my declaration to him from the very beginning, that 
the government of the Emperor could not determine in advance the amount of indemnity 
required for its demands in the absence of proper date to arrive at. Our legation at 
Mexico being in possession of all the documents of the numerous claims presented by our 
countrymen up to a recent period, it could alone fix the amount which would constitute an 
equitable and real reparation for so many grievances and damages which we have been 
compelled to ask from Mexico. I had, therefore, announced to Lord Cowley that we would 
leave this question to be settled by our representative. As soon as I learned the terms in 
which the ultimatum was conceived, having received only the text without any explana- 
tion in its support, I did not conceal to our plenipotentiaries, it is true, that their vigor 
had somewhat surpassed our previsions. But on reading afterwards the explanations sent 
by M. Dubois de Saligny, which I expected, I must acknowledge that, in forming this pro- 
ject of ultimatum, he had done so after mature reflection and formally proving the claims 
recommended to our case. 

Our representative, in basing his conduct in this case upon the instructions which I had 
sent him, has tried, notwithstanding, not to exaggerate their application, and has, besides, 
been frank and open in his manner of proceeding towards his colleagues. The objection 
made by Sir Charles Wyke against our ultimatum, pretending that only claims already 
admitted by Mexico in virtue of treaties or conventions ought to be comprehended, must 
have surprised M. de Saligny no less than it does ourselves. If this were the case, we 
could never have attained the object of an expedition, caused by the recent acts of the 
government of Mexico. That which evidently led the three powers to unite their forces 
against Mexico has been the impossibility of permitting that the rules of right and justice 
should be violated with impunity towards their subjects, and the firm determination of 
obtaining the proper satisfaction for past injuries and security for the future, that such 
abuses should not be repeated. Was it then properly time to pretend that Frauce, Great 
Britain, and Spain, by sending their fleets and soldiers to Mexico to secure, as the conven- 
tion says, by means of a joint action, the efficacious protection of their respective subjects, 
did not intend to require from the Mexican government aught else than the fulfilment of 
conventions which, having reference only to former grievances, would leave without satis- 
faction our last and more serious causes of complaint? 

Neither M Dubois de Saligny nor ourselves so viewed it. Our resolution and that of the 
cabinets of London sand Madrid was, we are perfectly convinced, at the moment that 
the treaty of the 31st of October was signed, to exact from Mexico the full reparations, 
without leaving room to evade it, for all the wrong of which it was responsible before the 
three powers up to the day when they had set foot on its soil. 

It does not become us to criticise the abandonment which England and Spain would be 
willing to make in this case of a part of their reclamations. Each of the allied powers is 
the judge in this respect of its own conduct ; and because we always thought so, we never 



176 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

admitted, even for an instant, that the demands pre stinted by one of the representatives were 
to have in advance the ass.-nt of the other two. 

Thus the opinion enunciated by Sir Charles Wyke ou this subject, though supported by 
General Prim, has been most properly opposed by M Dubois de Siligny. It results from 
a forced interpretation of the convention of London, for it cannot be concluded, in the first 
place, from its clauses that each one of the representatives of the three powers has the 
right to exercise a binding control on the claims presenttd by his colleagues in the name 
of their respective governments It has not been understood by any means that one has 
to submit to a icciprocal appreciation of its claims, and that the reparations required by 
the dignity or injured interests of one of the governments shouM be limited to those 
which the other two would deem satisfactory. It whs natural that the different commis- 
sioners, having t; form simultaneously the conditions for an ultimatum, should consult 
each other upon the grievances for which satisfaction was to be demanded ; but this pre- 
liminary communication, made only as a simple understanding, and with the object of 
best showing the accord between the different representatives, could in no manner convey 
the right to one of them of discussing the origin and extension of the grievances them- 
selves 

The convention of the 31st of October has conferred on the commissioners the power of 
giving their opinion on the subject of claims, but, as the convention properly says, ou the 
questions which might arise from the employment and distribution of the sums of money which will be 
recovered from Mtzio, paying attention to the respective lights of the contracting pa/ties. It is in 
principle the light of each power to determine itself what it has to claim. Otherwise, if 
we were to examine reciprocally the demands made by either party, that would have been 
to expose ourselves to see several mouths elapse betore the task could have beeu accom- 
plished What it is easy to undeistand is, that in the final and effective arrangement 
might have been necessary or just to establish a rank of liquidation among the ci edits in 
view of their character and importance ; but what is always necessary at the beginning is 
to determine frankly and categorically what it is the purpose of each power to obtain, other- 
wise their ultimatum gives rise to discussions, and consequently is not of a serious charac- 
ter. I do not pretend to say, nevertheless, that the three governments were bound to 
consider that all demands presented by each of them were to have the support of the other 
two as a right. If, in what concerns us, our conditions surpa-sed the incisure of those 
with which the representatives of Great Britain and Spa n were to decide or content them- 
slves, we were to look for the attitude which would best suit our interests, and to examine 
whether they would not have to suffer too much from concessions made to the support of a 
joint action, < r whether we were to prosecute separately the reparations due to France by 
remaining scrupulously faithlul to the spirit of the convention of London — that is to say, 
without looking for any particular advantage or territorial acquisition. One of the clauses 
of our ultimatum, which seemed more than any < ther to have met with the opposition of 
•Sir Charles Wyke, is that which relates to the contract made by the Mexican government 
with the house of Jecker. Our legation in making the claim originating from this con- 
tract has borne in mind, above all, the general interests of foreign commeice anil the advan- 
tages acciuiDg from it — as it bound the responsibility of the Mexican government, whatever 
it may be — no ltss than the enormous injury to the resident and foieign merchants which 
would follow its non-compliance. 

Writing to M. Dubois de Saligny in the sense of the exposition which precedes, I have 
left him free yet to use the latitude which was accorded him by my former instructions to 
modify his demands. Although I have not invited him, expiessly, to 1 educe the amount 
of our indemnification, he can be less rigorous on this point if this is to be an evident 
cause of dissidence between the representatives of the three courts. 

As for the other conditions which appear in our ultimatum, I have authorized him to 
give way so far as new considerations may advise it. In what concerns particularly the 
affair ot the Jecker debt, he will have again to examine, if there is not a destination to 
be made between the interest attached to it, and whether all of them have equally a right 
to our protection. 

What teems to me to be essential above all is, that no room be left to the Mexican gov- 
ernment to discuss hereafter the obligations which will be imposed upon it. This would 
not be the case if our exactions should not be made in a distinct manner ; if the amount 
of indemnity charged to the account should not be' fixed at once, the power to raise objec- 
tions against what she would owe us should be left to her soon after our forces had evacu- 
ated her territory. What we have experienced by recurring several times to this expedi- 
ency of a liquidation, admitted in principle, but which was to be subsequently discussed 
and settled, proves how illusory Boch sort of arrangements with the Mexican government 
are, to expose ourselves to fall again in the situation which has followed the regulations 

ot the kind to which, not long ago, Admiral IVnana. and more recently M Dubois de 
Saliguy, bad thought advisable to submit through a feeling of confidence in the- good faith 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 177 

of the Mexican government — a good faith which has not been confirmed. Therefore I do 
not admit that an opening be left to that government to evade the obligations which it 
might seem to have accepted, unless I consent to have as a net loss the heavy expenses 
which the actual expedition has caused ; I do not object, on the other hand, since the 
amount of our indemnity seems to be exorbitant to the English government, and since we 
do not pretend to establish it ourselves upon positive date at this time — I say I do not ob- 
ject to having a special commission to determine at a later period exactly what the amount, 
distinctively, of our indemnity must be which will satisfy our reclamations. M. Dubois 
de Saligny himself first suggested the idea, and I am perfectly disposed to adopt it. We 
would, in such case, do what we have done in similar cases ; for instance, in the indemnity 
of Djeddah. We would not hesitate in freeing the Mexican government from the portion 
of the amount primitively fixed, which would be over and above what we have a legitimate 
right to demand after an examination of all our injuries. It is well to remark, besides, 
that the importance of the demanded indemnities could not be considered as proper to 
render the recovery impossible after sufficient delay for payments should be granted to the 
Mexican government. 

There is another objection to our ultimatum, made by Lord Cowley, and which it is easy 
to remove. Article ninth seemed to him to state that the occupation of the ports of Vera 
Cruz, Tampico, or others, ought to take place for the exclusive benefit of France, she only 
having to establish there commissioners with the indicated object. Such is not, if well 
understood, the sense of this disposition. The measures which this article refers to as 
having to be adopted to guarantee the fulfilment of the obligations imposed on Mexico 
must, without the least doubt, be common to the three powers. If their rdtimatums 
were not to contain an identical clause on this head, certainly it would not be acting any 
longer in accordance with the spirit of the convention of London. 

THOUVENEL. 



The French Ambassador at London to the Minister of Foreign Ajjairs. 

London, March 11, 1862. 

M. le Ministee: I waited yesterday upon the principal secretary of state, and my inter- 
view with him was almost exclusively devoted to the state of affairs superinduced by the, 
grave dissensions among the commissioners of the allied powers in Mexico. It is too im- 
portant to the success of our expedition that a good understanding should be restored as 
soon as possible to have authorized me to do aught else than immediately direct my efforts 
to exhaust the question of the difference between M. Dubois de Saligny and Sir Charles 
Wyke, in regard to the ultimatum drawn up by the former. I therefore immediately in- 
formed the principal secretary of state of the approbation accorded by the Emperor's gov- 
ernment to the conduct of its commissioners. Following the spirit of your excellency's 
despatch of March 7, of which I thought myself authorized to read several passages, I 
brought Lord Russell to acknowledge that her Britannic Majesty's commissioner had mis- 
taken the spirit of the treaty signed at London when he refused his assent to the irltima- 
tum project of France. Like ourselves, Lord Russell does not admit, indeed, that the 
demands drawn up by any one of the representatives of the allied powers should pielimi- 
narily have the assent of the other two ; he thinks, however, that in virtue of the solidity 
which binds their governments in a community of action, and the reciprocal guarantees 
which they give each other, each of the commissioners has a right to make observations, 
and to give his opinion on the ultimatum of his colleagues. The principal secretary of 
state, as far as he is concerned, agrees with what Sir Charles Wyke has expressed in regard 
to the clauses of the ultimatum presented by M. Dubois de Saligny. Our demand of twelve 
millions of piastres seems to him too high. The clause which ex icts the execution of the 
contract with the Jecker house also appears to him open to most serious objections. He 
said to me that, in his opinion, that was not one of those engagements which deserved such 
a protection as that it should be necessary to lay down the execution of it as one of the 
conditions of an ultimatum. 

I was not sufficiently acquainted, M. le Ministre, with the contract in question to be able 
to enter upon a profound discussion on this point. I restricted myself to replying that your 
excellency had left M. Dubois de Saligny free to modify his demands, and that the latter 
would have consented to leave the Jecker affair among the reserved questions, if Sir Charles 
Wyke had been willing to give his assent to the other conditions contained in the French 
ultimatum, and especially to the first condition. As to the pretended excessiveness of the 
sum of which we had fixed the amount, I maintained the right which the French plenipo- 
tentiary had of comprising in his demand not only such debts as had previously constituted 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 12 



178 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

the subject of treaties with the Mexican government, but also those which had not yet been 
recognized by that government, and which had not been liquidated ; and in this connexion 
I let it be understood that if the pretension continued to be held forth that we ought to 
confine the claims which we believed ourselves justified in making upon Mexico within the 
limits of those with which the representatives of Great Britain and Spain had resolved to 
rest contented, it would perhaps be the occasion for leading us to examine whether our 
interests should not suffer too much from concessions made for the maintenance of common 
action, and whether it would not be preferable for us to proceed separately to the enforce- 
ment of the satisfaction due to us I added that it appeared essential, above all, to the 
Emperor's government that the Mexican government should not hereafter find itself in a 
position to discuss the obligations which might have been imposed upon it, and that it was 
chiefly with this view that it was deemed necessary to draw up the demands so as to settle 
now the amount of indemnity required from Mexico. " This amount," said I, " may be 
either insisted on or modified by our commissioner ; but once accepted by the Mexican gov- 
ernment, we will not refuse to have a special commission appointed to determine hereafter 
more exactly what ought to be finally paid as the sum total of our indemnities, in order 
to strictly satisfy our claim." And then I indicated what facilities in regard to time we 
were disposed to accord to the Mexican government in order to discharge its obligations. 
Lord Eussell accepted this idea of a commission, and told me that he was going to request 
Sir Charles Wyke to desist from his opposition. 

FLAHAULT. 



The Minuter of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador in London 

Paris, March 12, 1862. 

Monsieur le Comte : I have just received the despatch which you have done me the 
honor of writing to me on the 11th of March. I congratulate myself on seeing that the 
cabinet of London admits no more than we do the primal cause of the opposition mani- 
fested by Sir Charles Wyke against the ultimatum prepared by M. Dubois de Saligny, and 
on learning that, Lord Eussell is about to request the English minister to desist from that 
opposition. The opinion expressed by the principal secretary of state in regard to our 
claims requires of me, however, to transmit to you, in order to lay it before him, an 
estimate of the amount of the justice of which there can be no suspicion. This estimate 
is found in the article annexed, extracted from a Mexican journal, the Mexican Extraor- 
dinary, which is the accredited organ of the English interests in that country. This 
journal, which is far from having ever testified any very lively sympathy for our interests, 
does not hesitate, in an elaborate examination of the foreign debt, to place the sum total 
of our just claims at fifteen millions of piastres. As 1 already supposed, for other reasons, 
the amount of the English claims is still higher ; since the article annexed, while allowing 
a reduction of twenty per centum, then fixes our claims at twelve millions of piastres, and 
the amount of the English claims at 16,S00,000 piastres We do not propose to ourselves 
in any manner to examine into the oiigin and legitimacy of these debts, but we must 
think that Lord Russell himself was not perfectly informed heretofoie in regard to the 
amount sought to be figured out in the reckoning up of England's interests "by the side of 
ours 

THOUVENEL. 

[Article annexed.] 
Analysis of an article from the '■'■Mexican Extraordinary." 

The amount of the debt due by Mexico to France may, according to the writer of this 
article, be estimated at fifteen millions of piastres. 

" We have," says he, " studied the question with great cure, having all possible sources 

of information at our disposal for this investigati and we declare that, after the minutest 

examination and the most rigorous research into the proofs demanded under such circum- 
stances, the sum total of the chiims of the foreign powers will not be reduced more than 
twenty per centum from the figure previously announced, which fixes the claims to be 
enforced by each power against Mexico as follows : 

"English claims 16,S00,000 piastres. 

" French . . .do 12. 000. 000 piastres. 

'• S|»;inish ..do S, 000, 000 piastres. 

" Other do 4. 000, 000 piastres. 

• ' Total 40,800,000 piastres. ' ' 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 179 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Mexico. 

Paris, March U, 1862. 

Sir : I always regiet, as I wrote to you by the last courier, that the presentation of the 
ultimatums did not piecisely indicate, frcm the very first moment, the amount of satisfac- 
tion which the three powers intended, above everything else, to obtain from Mexico, and 
of which the common necessity had occasioned the combined expedition among themselves, 

The explanations into which I have entered in this regard with Lord Cowley, and which 
I have requested the Count de Flahault to repeat to Lord Russell, have been conformable 
to all that I said to you in my last despatch, and the information since furnished to me 
by your correspondence has allowed me to state with more authority the perfectly well 
considered and justifiable character of our ultimatum. I have considered it more particu- 
larly my duty to establish the point well that neither the letter nor the spirit of the treaty 
of London imposed any obligation on the representatives of the three powers to submit, as 
Sir Charles Wyke understood it, to a reciprocal investigation of the claims which they 
should draw up in the name of their respective governments. As you will see by a de- 
spatch from the Count de Flahault, Lord Russell has actually admitted, in unison with us, 
that the demands, drawn up by any one of the representatives of the allied powers, were 
not subject to be approved beforehand by the other two ; he added ouly that this did not 
exclude for that reason the right of expressing an opinion in reference to the ultimatum of 
a colleague. This is what I myself first declared, and whilst at the same time maintaining 
our right to consult our own interests merely on this point. Had the other two powers 
been willing, as far as they were concerned, to abandon a part of their claims, I did not 
wish to conceal from the English government the fact that we would not refuse to examine, 
in view of the maintenance of the common understanding between the powers, whether 
it was possible for us to yield up certain of our demands. I therefore called his attention 
to the modifications which I left you free to make in your ultimatum. I shall add, in this 
connexion, to what I said to you in regard to the possibility of a reduction of the amount 
of twelve millions of piastres due as our indemnity, that circumstances will indicate to 
you, better than I could do at so great a distance, whether too much rigor on our part 
might not, in the long run, be productive of more inconveniences than a few concessions, 
which might contribute to maintain an intimate concert of action between the representa- 
tives of the three courts, and which might facilitate a final arrangement. The institution 
of a French commission, which should be charged with the exact determination of what 
ought to be the amount of our indemnity, in order strictly to satisfy our claims, moreover 
appeared to the principal secretary of state of the Queen a happy idea, and I believe he 
would be disposed to adopt it also as far as the English claims are concerned. Conse- 
quently I request you to take this circumstance into consideration. In fact, I see no reason, 
as I have authorized the Count de Flahault to say, why we should hereafter hesitate to 
excuse the Mexican government from the payment of the portion of the indemnity primi- 
tively fixed upon, which might exceed what we would be legitimately authorized to demand, 
all our prejudices being taken into consideration. I have not failed, however, to remark 
to the English government that the importance of the indemnities demanded could not be 
considered such as to render the recovery of them impossible when sufficient delay was 
accorded to the Mexican government. 

As far as concerns the Jecker affair, I cannot insist too much on the distinction which I 
recommended you not to fail to make between whatever in this affair might properly claim 
our protection and foreign interests, with the maintenance of which, on the contrary, we 
have no business. 

THOUVENEL. 



Preliminaries of La Soledad. 

1. As the constitutional government which at present rules in the Mexican republic has 
made known to the commissioners of the allied powers that it is not in want of the help 
that they have so benevolently offered to the Mexican people, since it possesses in itself the 
elements of strength and of public opinion sufficient to preserve itself against any intestine 
revolt whatever, the allies from this time enter into negotiations (" entran en el terreno 
de los tratados") in order to adjust (" formalizar ") all the claims that they have to make 
in the name of their respective nations. 

2. Accordingly, and protesting, as do protest the repiesentatives of the allied powers, that 
they will attempt nothing against the independence, sovereignty, and integrity of the terri- 
tory of the republic, the negotiations will be opened in Orizaba, to which city will repair 



180 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

the commissioners Sad tvo of the ministers of the government of the republic, except in 
the case that by common consent it should be arranged to name representatives delegate*! 
by both parties. ■ 

3. During the negotiations the forces of the allied powers will occupy the towns of Cor- 
dova, Orizaba, and Tehuacan, with their natural limits. 

4. In order that it may not, in the most remote degree, be believed that the allies have 
signed these preliminaries in order to obtain the passage of the fortified positions garri- 
soned by the Mexican army, it is stipulated that, in the unfortunate event of the negotia- 
tions being broken off, the forces of the allies will retire from the said towns, and will 
place themselves in the line that is beyond the said fortifications, on the Vera Cruz side ; 
Paso Ancho, on the Cordova road and Paso de Ovejas, on that of Jalapa, being the prin- 
cipal extreme points * 

5. Should the unfortunate event of the breaking off of negotiations take place, and the 
allied troops retire to the line indicated in the preceding article, the hospitals that the 
allies may have will remain under the protection of the Mexican nation. 

6 The day on which the allied troops commence their march to occupy the places marked 
out in the 3cl article, the Mexican flag shall be hoisted in the city of Vera Cruz and on the 
castle of San Juan de Ulloa. 
La Soledad, February 19, 1862. 

EL CONDE DE EEUS. 
MANUEL DOBLADO. 

I approve these preliminaries by virtue of the full powers of which I am invested. 

BENITO JUAREZ. 

JESUS TERAN. . 
Mexico, February 23, 1S62. 

Approved : 

C. LENNOX WYKE. 
HUGH DUNLOP. 

Approuve les preliminaries ci-dessus : 

E. JURIES*. 

D. DE SALIGNT. 



Ihe Minister of Foreign Affairs to (he French Minuter in Mexico. 

Paris, March 31, 1862. 

Sir : I have received the despatches addressed to me by Admiral Jurien de la Graviere 
up to the 20th of February ; yours, of which he announced to me the consignment for trans- 
mission on the same date, have not yet reached me. I regret being deprived by this delay 
-of the information transmitted to me by you on your part at this moment. However, my 
last despatches will have sufficiently apprised you, without doubt, of the impression neces- 
sarily produced on the Emperor's government by the regretable preliminaries of La Soledad, 
to allow me to dispense myself from examining one by one all the clauses of that agree- 
ment. It is sufficient to state here, once more, that the negotiations entered into with the 
Mexican government did not correspond with the views of the allied powers. The annexed 
copy of the most recent despatches from the Count de Flahault and from M. Barrot will 
let you see that the cabinets of London and Madrid have not formed a judgment different 
from that of the Emperor's government in regard to the attitude accepted towards Mexico 
by the representatives of the three courts. What we demand of Mexico is, above all, I 
repeat it again, the redress of our grievances, and a government which will give us guar- 
antees for the future. As to the form and personnel of this government, we do not pretend 
to impose any. What it ought or can be depends absolutely on local circumstances, and 
on the appreciation which may be had of it in Mexico by wise men and lovers of their 
country. 

THOUYEtfEL. 



(Annexed document No. 1.] 
The French Ambassador at London to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

London, March 28, 1862. 
M. le Ministre : Yesterday I communicated to the principal secretary of state of the 
Queen the contents of the despatch which your excellency did me the honor of addressing 
to mc, together with the report of Admiral Jurien de la Graviere. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 181 

I am happy to be able to inform your excellency that Lord Russell shares the opinion 
expressed by you in regard to the manner in which affairs have been conducted, for a dif- 
ference of opinion between the governments on the course pursued by their commissioners 
could only aggravate, to a considerable extent, the inconveniences of the situation. Lord 
Russell does not hesitate to condemn the language used towards the Mexican government 
as in complete opposition to the facts which caused the necessity of the treaty of London ; 
he thinks that the commissioners, after having taken possession of the ports, should have 
confined themselves to making the grievances of their respective courts known to the Mex- 
ican government and demanding redress for them, allowing a reasonable time for compli- 
ance, at the end of which recourse should be had to coercive measures, if the satisfaction 
demanded should not be obtained. 

The Queen's principal secretary of state does not approve, anjr more than we do, the 
clause which permits the Mexican flag to float beside the flags of the three powers, and the 
engagement entered into by the commissioners to evacuate the posts occupied by our forces, 
if the negotiations should happen to fail. In brief, Monsieur le Ministre, Lord Russell 
agrees, on every point, with your excellency's opinion of the conduct adopted by our com- 
missioners, and the state of affairs which that conduct has produced. 

FLAHAULT. 



[Annexed document No. 2.] 

The French Ambassador at Madrid to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Madrid, February 26, 1862. 
Monsieur le Ministre : M. Calderon Collantes coincides with the opinion expressed by 
your excellency in regard to the error into which the plenipotentiaries of the three powers 
have fallen, in opening negotiations with the government of Juarez, of which the only 
result possible is the loss of precious time, and the facility offered to the Mexican govern- 
ment to organize means of defence. In the first place, said the, first secretary of state to 
me, the plenipotentiaries have acted contrary to the spirit and the tenor of the treaty of 
London ; it had been decided, in fact, that each of the powers should draw up the claims 
which it bad to make against the Mexican government, and that the other two had only 
to refrain from offering any opinion either on the amount or on the nature of such claims. 
Now the contrary has happened ; the claims of the French plenipotentiary have been re- 
jected by the English plenipotentiary, as being of such a character as not to be admissible 
by the Mexican government Thence the resolution adopted by common consent not to 
send to Mexico the details of the claims, but merely to inform the Mexican government of 
what it already knows too well, that the powers have claims to make against it. I cannot 
understand, added M. Calderon Collantes, what idea has inspired this resolution into the 
plenipotentiaries, nor what purpose they proposed to themselves in adopting it ; it is sim- 
ply a useless step, for it is evident that Juarez will tell the agents sent to him that, before 
replying to them, his government should know what the claims are which it is sought to 
enforce against him, and it will then be necessary to draw them up, a thing which it would 
be more simple to do at first. The Spanish government, therefore, censures General Prim 
for having swerved from the instructions which he received before his departure, and for 
having participated in an act which is a violation of one of the principal clauses of the 
treaty of London. However, this censure has been mitigated for the reason that General 
Prim acted in concert with his colleagues, with whom he had been recommended to keep 
always on terms of accord. 

The first secretary of state entertains the same opinion that we do in regard to the de- 
mand made on the Mexican government for a healthy location where the allied troops 
might await the end of the negotiations. Three great powers have not combined and sent 
considerable forces to the shores of Mexico merely to open illusory negotiations with a 
government which has already given so many proofs of bad faith. The purpose of that dis- 
play of military force was to compel the Mexican government, by prompt and energetic 
action, to give immediate and complete satisfaction for the grievances of which it has ren- 
dered itself guilty towards foreigners resident within its territory, and to prevent the repe- 
tition of them in future. Now, to attain this result, the plenipotentiaries were authorized 
to make all such arrangements as appeared suitable to them, and there was no reason to 
ask a government, which ought to be treated, and was, in fact, treated as an enemy, the 
very useless permis-sion to establish themselves on such or such a point of its territory. 

Negotiations being once opened with Juarez, was not the latter entitled to discuss the 
demands addressed to him ? Suppose, said the first secretary of state, that he accepts them, 
ana announces himself ready to give the powers all the securities which they shall be 



182 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

pleased to demand for the future ; shall the three powers rest contented with these prom- 
ises already so often made and so often violated ? Is it not evident, moreover, 
that if Juarez acted in good faith, it would he physically impossible for him to keep the 
engagements which he might make ? It is known, in fact, that he wished to effect a loan 
of six millions oi dollars from the government of the United States, in order to satisfy the 
claims of the poweis, and that, as a guarantee for this loan, he would deliver to the gov- 
ernment of the Union the province of Sonora and other parts of the Mexican territory ; now 
these six millions of dollars scarcely cover one-twelfth of the claims which he will have to 
satisfy. Will the three powers accept this state of affairs and dissolve their alliance, satis- 
fied with haviDg obtained what probably would not have been refused to them on an ener- 
getic note from the representative of any one of them? An enterprise such as this, which 
has taken the combined forces of France, Spain, and England to Mexico, is not renewed 
twice. We must act in such a manner as to obtain all the results which we have in view. 
A grave fault has been committed ; we must redouble our energy and activity and essay to 
regain lost time. To this effect has the Spanish government alreacty written to the Count 
of Reus. 

In the same conversation, abandoning the positive part of the consequential results of 
the treaty of London, M. Calderon Collantes expatiated on the eventualities of the future. 
He spoke to me of the necessity in which the powers find themselves placed of substituting 
for the government of Juarez a stable government which may give to Mexico that pros- 
perity of which nature has lavished all the elements on that privileged land, and which 
may afford security for the lives and property of foreigners. Will this be effected by creat- 
ing with the government of Juarez ? Shall we also submit to him the question of a change 
of government ? One of two things will be the consequence, (I here continue to be the 
interpreter of the words of the first secretary of state,) either Juarez will say : My govern- 
ernment is solidly established ; it is the only government now possible in Mexico : the only 
one which can give the powers the guarantees which they demand. He has been authorized 
to hold this language, and we would be inconsistent with ourselves if, after having solemnly 
opened negotiations with his government, we were to say to him : Your government is 
bad : withdraw ; Mexico will choose another, and we will assist her in so doing. Or, per- 
haps, Juarez — which is quite improbable — will accept this proposal ; he will consent osten- 
sibly to lay down his power and to consult the country. But will not this apparent abne- 
gation give him a moral power which he does not now possess ? Evidently we would 
deprive him momentarily of power only to see that power fall back into his hands under 
circumstances infinitely more favorable to him than now. Some may reply to this, that 
Juarez ceasing to be President of the republic, the party of order, that is to say, the great 
majority of the Mexican people, will bestir themselves to choose either another form of gov- 
ernment or another man. Do not believe it. That might have happened if, on landing 
on the coasts of Mexico, the powers had distinctly declared that they would not treat with 
Juarez, and appealed to the Mexican nation to choose immediately a government with 
which the dignity of the allied powers would permit them to negotiate ; but from the mo- 
ment we openly recognized the government of Juarez by negotiating with it, we have by 
that alone discouraged the sane part of the people ; we have repressed their aspirations for 
a better rule of things, and it is to be feared that it will be very difficult now to revive the 
hopes which were based only on the certainty of the moral and material co-operation of the 
three powers in case of necessity. 

The situation of affairs has, therefore, become more difficult than it was at the moment 
that the allied troops appeared on the coasts of Mexico. We must not, however, despair 
of the result; we must, on the contrary, profit by the experience we have acquired. Cost 
what it may, France, Spain, and England cannot abandon an enterprise for which they have 
united their forces ; they must effect in Mexico what they have proposed to themselves to 
effect. Spain, as far as she is concerned, is quite decided on this point. 

BAKROT. 



[Annexed document No. 3.] 
The hunch Ambassidor at Madrid to the Minister of Foreign A flairs. 

Madrid, March 23. 1862. 

Monsieur le Mimsiuk: I inform your excellency, by a telegraphic despatch, of the 
result of the interviews which I had yesterday with the first secretary of state, and this 
morning with Marshal O'Donnell. 

The Queen's government has been painfully impressed on receiving intelligence of the 
arrangement concluded at La Soledarl between General Prim and General Doblado. The 






MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 183 

marshal desired to give me a great mark of confidence by reading to me, from beginning 
to end, the despatch addressed by the Queen's government yesterday evening to the Count 
de Eeus on this subject. In this despatch, the polished form of which conceals not the 
very pointed censure therein contained, the Queen's government expresses to the com- 
mander-in-chief of the Spanish forces in Mexico its disapproval of several of the clauses of 
the arrangement in question. 

Thus it blames the plenipotentiaries for having given to the government of Juarez a 
moral force which it wanted before, by declaring in article 1 of the arrangement that 
that government appeared to them to present conditions of force and stability, and that 
they were ready to treat with it. If circumstances demanded it, said Marshal O'Donnell, 
they might certainly have opened negotiations with the government of Juarez, but it was 
not at all necessary to give it in any way a certificate of vitality ; by doing so they had 
compromised the attitude of the allied powers towards the other parties opposed to that of 
Juarez. 

The Queen's government is not, any more than in the former case, satisfied with the 
clause relative to the withdrawal of the allied troops, in case the negotiations which 
were about to be opened, should not reach an amicable solution. However, it accepts, to a 
certain extent, the explanations given in this respect by the Count de Reus. 

Marshal O'Donnell likewise censures the abandonment, in the case of the failure to 
which I have referred, of the hospitals which might be established by the allies in the en- 
campments which they are going to occupy, in spite of the engagement entered into by 
the Mexican government to respect them, and the certitude which that government 
should entertain that every infraction of that engagement would be sternly punished by 
the forces of the allied powers. 

Censure most distinct and unqualified has been pronounced by the Queen's government 
on the clause which imposes on France, Spain, and England the duty of flying the Mexi- 
can flag beside their own at Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulloa. 

In brief, Monsieur le Ministre, I repeat it, the government of Queen Isabella censures 
the arrangement of La Soledad, as that of his Majesty does, and the marshal has very de- 
cidedly expressed his opinion in this respect by saying to me that, if he had been in the 
place of the Count de Reus, he would not have signed it. 

The Spanish government, moreover, attributes the faults which have been committed in 
the later stages of the proceedings to the misunderstanding which in the very beginning 
arose between the plenipotentiaries of France and England. General Prim had to inter- 
pose between them, and, being unable to succeed in conciliating them, he was drawn to 
give his sanction to the delay granted in the despatching of an ultimatum to the govern- 
ment of Juarez. Thence came the negotiations disapproved by the Spanish government, 
those negotiations entered into with the actual government of Mexico, and which resulted 
unfortunately in the conclusion of the arrangement of La Soledad, which the Queen's 
government likewise censures. It is settled, therefore, for this last, that the plenipoten- 
tiaries of the allied powers have departed from the instructions which they received from 
their respective governments, and that they have acted contrary to the spirit of the treaty 
of the 31st of October. But now that the evil is done, said Marshal O'Donnell, we must 
plan how to repair it 

M. Calderon Collantes has sent me, as the expression of his opinion in regard to the 
actual state of our affairs in Mexico, the memorandum of which I enclose a copy to your 
excellency. 

BARROT. 



[Annexed document.] 

Madrid, March 23, 1862. 

The Queen's government thinks that the complications and difficulties which have arisen 
in Mexico spring from the fact that the claims of the three powers were not drawn up in 
the very beginning, of which circumstance the Spanish plenipotentiary has not been the 
cause ; that the first clause of the preliminaries, which gives the government of Juarez a 
moral force which it did not possess before, might well have been omitted ; that the 
fourth clause is explained by reasons of a military point of honor, and that the Mexicans, 
recognizing the extreme generosity with which they have been treated, should have 
themselves renounced its benefits. 

Among the conditions laid down by the conferences of Orizaba, the last among them is 
that which seems least justifiable. However, the Queen's government, while addressing 
to General Prim, Count de Reus, such observations as are proper to this subject, as well 
as in reference to the spirit of conciliation with which all the plenipotentiaries were in- 



184 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

spired, formally directs hini to act with the greatest promptitude and energy, and to 
abandon every kind of temporizing policy if tbe result of tbe conferences has not been 
completely satisfactory. 

The next courier will inform us of that result, and until then any decisive resolution 
would be premature or hazardous. 



31. Calderon Collantes, First Secretary of Slate, to the Plenipotentiary Commanding -in-Chief the 
Spanish Expeditionary Corps in Mexico. , 

[Extract.] 

Madrid, March 22, 1862. 

The Queen's government allows their just value to the considerations set forth by your 
excellency to demonstrate the necessity of all that was done previous to the 20th 
of February last, and of the preliminaries agreed upon with the minister of foreign affairs 
of Juarez ; but it believes that some of them will give occasion, in Mexico itself, to inter- 
pretations of such a nature as to foment a more obstinate resistance than would have 
been offered if the claims had been presented immediately. 

In examining the preliminaries attentively, it is seen that in virtue of the first clause 
the government of Don Benito Juarez acquires a moral force which it did not possess, 
provided that, in giving credit to its declaration that it possesses all the elements of force 
and of opinion necessary to maintain itself, we enter immediately on the business of 
treaties and negotiations. This could have been done whilst omitting the declaration, 
and such a course would not have produced the inconveniences presented at the very first 
sight. ° ° * ° 

The fourth clause has excited the most lively disapprobation on the part of the im- 
perial government, and her Majesty's government would not approve of it without the 
reflections which your excellency offers to justify it, which reflections have their influence 
upon the government. Really that cannot be kept by force -which has been obtained by 
treaty. The valor and justice of the allied forces, and the honor of the chiefs who com- 
mand them, would recoil from such an idea ; but the Mexican government should have 
abandoned to their generous decision the adoption of the proper course, in case the nego- 
tiations should eventuate without result, or, to speak more properly, in case the claims of 
the three friendly governments should fail to be accepted. 

Such a manifestation of good will would not have been very great when we consider that 
the Mexican government had then received from the allies so many proofs of moderation 
and generosity. Moreover, it would be very much to be regretted that, in case the troops 
should have to retire, the hospitals should remain in the power of the enemy, even though 
they had taken a solemn engagement to respect them, and even though they possessed the 
means of punishing any act committed against them. 

The last clause or condition of the preliminaries is that of which the application is most 
difficult. The city of Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa have been occupied by 
the Spanish troops in the name of the three nations, not only as a base and starting point 
of operations, but also in the quality of a pledge and guarantee to compel the Mexican 
government to satisfy the claims which we have drawn up against it. 

Inasmuch as this may not take place — inasmuch as all idea or all danger of a rupture may 
not have disappeared. Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulloa, abandoned by the Mexican troops, 
have no other authority or power to rule over them than the authority and power of the 
three allied nations. ° « ° e * o o o e- 

The Queen's government, being assured that when this despatch shall reach you the ne- 
gotiations opened will have reached a termination, and wishing to avoid giving occasion for 
the slightest want of concert and harmony in the resolutions of the three governments, has 
resolved (notwithstanding the brevity of the time past since the arrival of the courier yes- 
terday, till the moment of the departure of the present i that I should instruct your excel- 
lency as follows : 

Your excellency, acquainting yourself well with the spirit of the instructions which I 
have heretofore communicated to you. and with the sense of the present royal order, should 
proceed with the greatest promptitude and energy, and in accord with the plenipotentiaries 
and the commanders of tin' troops of the other two nations, in case the conferences of Ori- 
zaba do not have an entirely satisfactory result. 

Your excellency justly recognizes tint all imaginable means of conciliation having been 
exhausted, the necessity for hostilities, whatever may he their consequences, will lie demon- 
strated before the world and in presence even of the Mexican people, who will not be able 
to preserve their confidence and their reliance, supposing that these qualities be actually 



- MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 185 

banished from it in a government which has not listened to the voice of justice after having 
previously eschewed the sentiments which direct the actions of all civilized governments. 
In this extreme case your excellency can, doubtless, count on the active co-operation of 
all honorable men, and the three allied nations will obtain not only the requisite satisfac- 
tion for their numerous grievances, but also the satisfaction of having contributed, by the 
presence of their troops and without the commission of any outrage, to favor the inde- 
pendence of the Mexican people, and to give them a government which may put an end to- 
their continual sufferings by protecting equally the rights of native Mexicans and the in- 
terests of foreigners. * Q ® s * « & e e s s 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Madrid. 

Paris, April 1, 1862. 

Sir : I have the honor of acknowledging the receipt of the report under date of March 
23, in which you render me an account of the recent interview which you have had with 
M. Calderon Collantes and with Marshal O'Donnell in regard to the affairs of Mexico. 

If we could possibly have still retained the least doubt in our minds as to the conformity 
of views which exists between the Emperor's government and that of her Catholic Majesty, 
it would be completely dissipated by the declarations and assurances, equally clear and 
formal, which you have received from the first secretary of state and the president of 
the Council. 

The government of her Britannic Majesty, on its part, has likewise come over to our way 
of thinking in regard to the course of conduct pursued by our plenipotentiaries and the pre- 
liminary articles signed at La Soledad. We are, therefore, authorized to think that the- 
respective plenipotentiaries, now perfectly enlightened on the identical views and intentions 
of the three cabinets, will strive, henceforward, to establish among themselves a unanimity 
of action conformable to the intentions of their governments, and thus to give to their action 
that unity which will be for them the surest element of strength and success. 

At the distance at which we are from the scene of events we could not pretend to trans- 
mit to our ageuts directions sufficiently prompt and precise to modify the consequences of 
•the first acts in which they have taken part. We must hope, however, that they will have- 
understood of themselves that, if they do not obtain from the Mexican government such, 
engagements and guarantees as are proper to give entire satisfaction for all our grievances, 
they ought immediately to have recourse to the military measures dictated by circumstances.. 

THOUVENEL. 



Tne Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Mexico. 

Paris, April 12, 1862. 
Sir : I wrote to you by the last courier that the cabinets of Madrid and London had not 
judged otherwise than the Emperor's government of the attitude assumed towards Mexico 
by the representatives of the three courts. Marshal O'Donnell, in a new conversation which 
he has had with his Majesty's ambassador at Madrid, has taken the trouble to explain the 
circumstances which should, according to him, have influenced the conduct of General 
Prim ; but he has expressed the confidence that a perfect understanding cannot fail to be 
established between the Marquis de Castillejos and General de Lorencez, and he has reiter- 
ated the assurance that the commander-in-chief of the Spanish forces had ordeis 1o reject. 
forthwith, all dilatory measures and to march without hesitation towards the end which the- 
allied powers have proposed to themselves. The cabinet of Madrid, it is true, posterior to 
that despatch, has caused its desire to be expressed to me that the plenipotentiaries of the 
three courts should meet in order to agree in advance on ihe subject of the different ques- 
tions which might arise from the negotiations opened at Orizaba. I have replied that I did 
not think that there was any practical utility in reassembling a conference which could only 
deliberate from afar on eventualities more or less hypothetical ; that I believed, therefore, 
that it was better to await the development of the situation without seeking to anticipate 
events. Either the negotiations will be broken off in reality, and there will remain no 
other course than to follow up the expedition energetically, or they will terminate in a 
treaty, and to appreciate it we must, necessarily, know the text of it. For the rest, I have 
every reason to believe that the Spanish government has already understood the value of 
these observations, and that it is not disposed to insist on its proposition. 



186 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The language employed to the Count de Flahaolfc by Lord Russell authorized me to say 
to you heretofore, as I have done, that the English government at that time shared in our 
opinion in regard to the course of conduct pursued in the last negotiations with the Mexican 
government But it appears from the communication to me by Lord Cowley of a despatch 
from the British principal secretary of state, that, though at first the cabinet judged as 
severely, indeed, as we did the treaty of La Soledad, the explanations since furnished by 
Sir Charles Wyke have modified that first impression. Lord Russell, however, docs not 
approve of all the details of that arrangement, and especially of that one which provides 
for the appearance of the Mexican flag at Vera Cruz ; but he appears satisfied that the 
grievances, for which it is proposed to obtain reparation, should become the object of ne- 
gotiations, and he expresses the hope that, having entered on this course, we will attain a 
result such as to satisfy the powers that signed the treaty of London. I have confined 
myself to telling Lord Cowley, in reply to the communication which I received from him, 
that we could not regard matters from the same point of view, and that from the moment 
that the English troops should no longer find themselves engaged with ours in the interior 
of Mexio, the Emperor's government remaiued the sole judge of the exigencies that be- 
hooved, under actual circumstances, the care of its militarv dignity. 

THOrYEN T EL. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Madrid. 

Paris, April 15, 1862. 

Sir: After the views, so very decisive, expressed to you by the ministers of her Catholic- 
Majesty in regard to the preliminary treaty of La Soledad, and the line of conduct pursued 
by the respective plenipotentiaries, and especially by General Prim, we should have 
thought that the cabinet of Madrid entirely shared our views on this puint. Our surprise, 
therefore, has been no less than yours in finding in the explanations given to the Coites 
by M. Calderon Collantes, in reference to the affairs of Mexico, an unreserved approval of 
the course pursued by General Prim and of the preliminaries of La Soledad. 

However it be, sir, the Emperor's government will abstain from insisting on the regret- 
able phase of this incident ; it prefers to hope that it will have no influence on the further 
conduct of the affair, and that the request lately sent to the commander-in-chief of the 
Spanish forces, to act with vigor in conformity with his instructions, will have the effect 
of impressing, henceforward, on the efforts of the respective plenipotentiaries and of the 
commanders-in-chief that unity of direction and of action dictated by the community of 
those interests which have called us to Mexico. 

THOUVEXEL. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Mtxico. 

Parjs, May 31, 18G2. 

Sir: We know now, in all its details, the rupture which has definitely taken place be- 
tween the plenipotentiaries of the three powers. 

I need not tell you that the Emperor's government very much regrets that this has 
occurred ; but I think we may hope that, beyond the divergence of view.-; which it unfor- 
tunately manifests in regard to the affairs of Mexico, it will not produce any more general 
political complications. 

The respective governments have now approved of the conduct of their representatives. 
It behooves us, then, to let things take their course. The cabinet of London, as I have 
already told you, retains all confidence in our intentions, and that of Madrid declares that 
it heartily wishes our success. As far as we are concerned, I have to approve especially 
the terms of the pioclamation which, in concert with Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, you 
addressed to the Mexican people on the 6th of August It is this stand which you have 
taken that it behooves you to maintain. Our sentiments in regard to the internal condi- 
tion of Mexico, our desire to see the country reconstituted under new conditions of order 
and stability, cannot be modified or enfeebled. But if it should issue transformed from the 
actual crisis, it is not from the French camp that the movement for its regeneration 
should originate ; it is from the country itself, which, thanks to our presence, should re- 
sume confidence in itself and in the moral support which it should certainly have to 
-\]i ct from all governments, on the day when, reorganizing itself more honorably and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 187 

more regularly, it wjuld offer them all the guarantees which the combined expedition had 
for its object to demand. You will give your attention, I have no doubt, to observe 
strictly that course of conduct which has been already traced out for jou by my previous 
instructions, and which I recall here only because we have now a much better opportunity 
from this circumstance that henceforward we pursue alone the end towards which we had 
hoped at first to proceed in concert with England and Spain. 

THOUVENEL. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Madrid. 

Paris, June 10, 1862. 

Sir: In shielding the responsibility of the Count De Reus by the official approbation 
which it has given to his conduct, the cabinet of Madrid obliges us to enter into new ex- 
planations with it, and to relieve from all ambiguity the ideas which direct our policy in 
the affairs of Mexico. Moreover, I cannot leave unanswered the despatch of the first sec- 
retary of state of her Catholic Majesty, of the date of the 21st of last month, of which the 
charge d'affaires of Spain has permitted me a copy. In that despatch M. Calderon Col- 
lantes develops the motives which inspired the resolutions of General Prim, and he con- 
siders them fully justified by a private letter from Admiral Jurien de la Graviere to the 
Count De Reus, in which the latter thought he saw an insult to the dignity of his country. 
I regret the importance given to this document, 'which, in its confidential and intimate 
form, did not, perhaps, call for an official discussion, by an interpretation which its author 
would certainly have hastened to disavow if he could have foreseen it. Even though, in 
the freedom of private correspondence, some expressions had inexactly rendered the ideas 
of Admiral Jurien, his well known sympathies for our allies, his personal relations with 
the Count De Reus ought, it seems to me, have removed from him all suspicion of any 
intention to offend. General Prim seemed, for the lest, to have thought of it in the same 
way at first, and his reply, full of cordiality and of that affectionate brotherhood that hon- 
ors the military career, scarcely permits the supposition that, at the receipt of his colleague's 
letter, he felt himself attacked for a moment in his dignity, still less in that of his country. 
As to the Emperor's government, I have not assuredly to defend it, the cabinet of Madrid 
knowing too well the sentiments which animate it in regard to Spain, and of which you 
have so often been the interpreter, to require me to renew the assurance of them. I might 
refuse even to admit that any doubt had arisen in this respect in the minds of the Queen's 
ministers, if it were possible to discover in the facts anterior to the correspondence which 
now occupies us the determining cause of the actual resolutions of the Spanish government. 
Having sometimes differed in our opinions on secondary points, the two governments have 
always found themselves of accord on essential questions arising from their co-operation, 
in the course to be pursued as well as in the end to be attained So we should suppose 
that the cabinet of Madrid would be no less surprised than ourselves to learn that its plen- 
ipotentiary, on a divergence of conduct with his colleagues of France, abandoned the en- 
terprise and, on his own responsibility, took a determination which the ministers of her 
Catholic Majesty have assured you never entered into their provisions. 

I shall not trouble myself, sir, to recall the origin and the object of the treaty of Lon- 
don. France and England ha 1 not yet decided to have recourse to coercive measures 
against a government which ignored all its details, from which Spain, anticipating 
our agreement, had already prepared to claim, with arms in hand, the execution, ever 
refused, of the treaty signed by M. Mon and General Almonte, and the reparation which 
was due to her for the insult offered to her representative, M Pacheco. The conformity 
of interests and of circumstances quickly produced the understanding which was estab- 
lished at London between the three courts. Having to pursue the redress of their similar 
grievances, they wished to obtain their satisfactions and their guarantees in common. 
Resolved at the very beginning, and by force, if necessity, to seize a material pledge to 
answer them for the reparation of the damages suffered by their countrymen, they contem 
plated as an eventual result, but a very desirable one, of their operations, the establish- 
ment in Mexico of a regular and stable political regime, which should offer them for the 
future such moral sureties as they had vainly demanded from all the governments which 
had succeeded each other in that republic. The threj powers did not hesitate, then, to rec- 
ognize that the government of Juarez offered them neither at present nor in future any 
of those guarantees which they sought. Tnus, they were unanimous in disapproving the 
first steps of their representatives in Mexico, which appeared to them impressed with inde- 
cision and petty arrangements which the situation did, not warrant. The cabinet of Mad- 
rid was no less eiger to regret an attitude which, by raising up the authority of the gov- 



188 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

eminent of Mexico, could not but encourage its resistance, aud contrasted, above all, with 
the ardor of which Spain had given proof in preceding her allies to Mexico, and which 
seemed to indicate on her part the will to do herself justice rather than to negotiate. All 
the incidents that bave occurred since have given occasion to explanations between us and 
the cabinet of Madrid too complete to authorize me to return to the subject, unless it he 
to state once more the conformity of the judgments which we formed of them. From the 
confidential exchange of our ideas, from the assurances which you have received, I should 
have concluded the identity of our views and of the directions transmitted to our agents. 
Thus it is that we have been able to believe ourselves authorized to suppose that if our 
plenipotentiaries, enlightened by the facts which were disclosed before their eyes and re- 
lieved from the rnuch-to-be-i egretted engagements of La Soledad by the new excesses of 
the Mexican government, would impress on their action a more decisive appearance, the 
Spanish government would think, like us, that, far from authorizing the abandonment of 
the policy of the treaty of London, this new attitude would, on the contrary, indicate a 
desire to return to that policy in order to effect its final triumph. We would, necessarily, 
have been confirmed in this idea and in our opinion with regard to the liberty of action 
restored to us by the acts of the Mexican government, in reading the reply of General 
Prim to the letter of Admiral Jurien de la Graviere. The Count of Reus wrote on the 
21st of March to the following effect : "Can we permit, while we remain quiet in our 
camps, that the government should continue its vexatious proceedings against our country- 
men throughout the entire republic, in exacting from them the paymeut of the contribu- 
tion of 2J per cent, on their capitals, as is done, M. Doblado pretending that he has the 
right to do so ? Can we permit M. Doblado to threaten us with the re-establishment of 
the decree preventing commercial intercourse between the custom-house of Vera Cruz and 
the interior of the country, in case that custom-house should not be delivered up to him ? 
Can we permit that a forced loan of 500,000 piastres should be exacted of six houses in. 
Mexico, of which three are Spanish, taxed at 100,000 piastres each ? These are the reasons 
why Sir Charles Wyke and myself have assumed a more energetic attitude than that 
which we held when we separated. Annexed is the last letter of M. Doblado ; judge, in 
your generous pride, whether such a cool, curt style of speech suits us. You will find, 
then, in the letter of M. Doblado, and in my explanations, the real cause of our warlike 
humor ; you need seek for no other, for no other exists." 

Our plenipotentiaries shared the impressions of General Prim and of Sir Charles Wyke. 
Freed from their engagements by the act of the Mexican government, they were impatient 
to emerge from a situation which suited them no more than it did the Count of Reus. But 
I am at a loss to understand the reproach here addressed by M. Calderon Collantes to Ad- 
miral Jurien de la Graviere, of having wished to render the direct and personal interests 
which had led the allies to Mexico subordinate to the preliminary establishment of a mon- 
archy in that country. The views of the Emperor's government, in this regaid, have been 
too often explained to the cabinet of Madrid to presume the possibility of their having been 
mistaken ; and as to our plenipotentiaries, it suffices to read the proclamation which they 
addressed to the Mexican people, when, in consequence of the retirement of our allies, they 
had no longer to regard anything but the sentiment of their government, in order to he 
convinced that they strictly conformed their words and their acts to that sentiment, in 
disavowing all intention of imposing by force a form of government rejected by the voice 
of the nation. 

The first secretary of state insists very much on some phrases in which Admiral Jurien 
de la Graviere might seem to evince a regret of the too exclusively Spanish character which 
the expedition might have had in the beginnmg, according to him, when he intimated that 
in future the augmentation of our effective force would assure the independence of our 
policy, if ciicumstances imposed that necessity upon us. It is evident that, as long as the 
accord lemained Complete between the allies, the expedition should have a collective char- 
acter ; and our plenipotentiary merely stated a fact when he recalled to mind, in a confi- 
dential communication addressed to his colleague, that the arrival of the Spanish troops 
before the others, their numerical superiority, the conspicuous character even of their 
chief, had, in that phase of the combined operations, assigned a preponderating part to 
Spain. Admiral Jurien did not seek by any means to complain of this In estimating the 
influence exerted in the common work up to that time by the particular action of each of 
the combined forces, he did not overstep, it seems to me, the limits of honest discussion, 
ami the opinion which he expressed on this point was not calculated to surprise the Count 
of Reus, whilst a journal printed under his eyes lost no opportunity to represent him as the 
soul aud complete impersonation of the expedition. Did he not himself write, on the 27th 
of February, to the first secretary of state of her Catholic Majesty, that, "in his opinion, the 
Spanish element ought to predominate, as well on account of the particular situation of 
Spain, in regard to Mexic >. as of the initiative taken by his government in this important 
enterpiise?" Admiral Jurien, in tine, confined himself to indicating that, in certain event- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 189 

ualities, independent action would become the right of each one, and that, if the time 
came when it would be necessary to renounce the idea of obtaining by collective efforts the 
results which they had promised themselves, he would remain free to pursue his task as he 
understood it, and to attend alone to the dignity and the interests of his country. It is 
under this anticipation, unfortunately realized, that our plenipotentiary undeitook to say 
that the expedition would become French 

As to the particular facts which have occasioned the rupture, I wish to speak cf the pro- 
tection granted to General Almonte. I might, if needs be, find the justification of the 
conduct of our agents in the reflections, so full of wisdom and of foresight, whieh the ex- 
pulsion of General Miramon inspired into the first secretary of state of her Catholic Majesty. 
After having recommended to the Count of Reus to use all his influence in order to prevent 
the repetition of an act of that nature, M. Calderon Collantes wrote to him, on the 7th of 
March — 

" It might be feaied that the good understanding now existing between the plenipo- 
tentiaries and the commanders of the forces of the three allied powers would be disturbed, 
if any one of these powers regarded itself as authorized to dictate against any Mexican such 
measures as that resorted to in regard to Ex-President Miramon. It would be equivalent 
to exercising a species of sovereignty, which, by placing itself in opposition to that of the 
others, might give occasion to dangerous debates, and, perhaps, even to acts of violence 
difficult to be justified The representative of her Catholic Majesty has the important 
mission of protecting all peisons without distinction, and of preventing any act that may 
appear dictated by passion or violence." 

Finally, in his despatch of the 21st of May, M. Calderon Collantes refers to the propo- 
sition which he made, when the first differences broke out, to open a conference in order 
to establish between the three governments a new understanding, embracing at once ac- 
complished facts and such eventualities as might possibly arise. The Emperor's govern- 
ment appreciates the sentiments which dictated that proposition, and it would have been 
happy to accept it if it could have hoped from it the good effects promised to itself by the 
cabinet of Madrid. But we had to observe that, at the distance at which we were from the 
scene of events, such a new understanding could exert no influence on their course ; and it 
is enough, in fact, to compare dates, in order to convince ourselves that identical instruc- 
tions, the most categorical from the three governments, could not have prevented the 
rupture consummated at Orizaba by their plenipotentiaries, nor rendered measures instanta- 
neously accomplished. 

I hasten, sir, to withdraw from a discussion henceforward without purpose and into 
which I have entered only with regret. Each government pronounces in full sovereignty 
on all the questions in which its dignity and its interests have been engaged. It is not our 
part to inquire into the motives which may determine the cabinet of Madrid to adopt now 
towards the government of Mexico a policy of conciliation and negotiation in which we 
cannot participate. We must state only, as far as we are concerned, that at the time when 
our plenipotentiaiies separated from their colleagues of Orizaba, on the 9th of April, no 
insult had been avenged, no injury repaired. The object of the treaty of London had not 
therefore been attained, and it could not suit lis to accept the results, thus far negative or 
illusory, of the expedition which we had sent to Mexico. We regret to have to accomplish 
alone a duty of which we would have been happy and proud to share the dangers with the 
glorious army of Spain. We will endeavor to prove equal to the effort ; we will strive to 
obtain the reparation which is due to us ; we will exact serious and lasting guarantees for 
the future. If, in the accomplishment of this task, which is that especially which we have 
imposed on ourselves, we can be of any assistance to the efforts which may be made by the 
country itself to emerge from the anarchy which devours it and to reconstitute itself on 
new and solid oases, we will not refuse our moral support to such manifestations as may 
appear to us to merit our sympathies. In acting thus, we confidently entertain the idea 
that we are serving the cause of civilization and of our own interests, which we do not 
separate, in those distant regions, from those of our allies who have signed the treaty of 
. London with us. 

You are authorized, sir, to read this despatch to the first secretary of state of her 
. Catholic Majesty, and to leave with him a copy of it. 

THOUVENEL. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Mexico. 

Paeis, July 8, 1862. 
Sir : The Emperor has resolved on sending considerable re-enforcements to Mexico, and 
his Majesty has confided the command in chief of his troops to General Forey. The 



190 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

re-enforcements will not delay to join the expeditionary corps, but General Forey will 
precede them to Mexico, Ids departure being to take place in a few days. His Majesty has 
decided that this general officer should combine in his own hands all the powers previously 
conferred on Admiral Juiien de la Graviere, and that consequently he should be simul- 
taneously invested with the powers of plenipotentiary and of commander-in-chief of our 
expedition. 

THOUVENEL. 



The Emperor to General Forey. 

Fontainebleau, Jidy 3, 1862. 

My Dear General: At the moment when you are about to start for Mexico, charged 
with political and military powers, I think it useful to make you acquainted with my ideas. 

The line of conduct you will have to follow is : 1. To publish on your arrival a procla- 
mation, the principal points of which will be indicated to you. 2. To receive with the 
greatest kindness all the Mexicans who shall present themselves. 3. Not to espouse the 
quarrel of any party ; to declare that everything is provisional so long as the Mexican 
nation shall not have expressed its opinion ; to show great deference for religion, but at 
the same time to tranquilize the holders of national property. 4. To feed, pay, and arm, 
according to your means, the Mexican auxiliary troops, and make them play principal parts 
in the combats. 5. To maintain among your own troops, as well as among the auxiliaries, 
the most severe discipline ; to vigoiously repress any act or word insulting, to the Mexicans, 
for the pride of their character must not be forgotten, and it is important for the success 
of the enterprise to conciliate the good feelings of the people. 

When you shall have reached the city of Mexico, it is to be desired that the principal 
persons of all political shades who shall have embraced our cause should come to an 
understanding with you to organize a provisional government. I he government will 
submit to the Mexican people the question of the political regime which is to be definitively 
established. An assembly will be afterwards elected, according to the Mexican laws. 

You will aid the new government to introduce into the administration, anil particularly 
into the finances, that regularity of which France offers the best model. For that purpose, 
capable men will be sent to second its new organization. 

The object to be attained is not to impose on the Mexicans a form of government which 
would be obnoxious, but to assist them in their efforts to establish, according to their own 
wishes, a government which may have a chance of stability, and can secure to France the 
settlement of the injuries of which she has to complain. 

It follows, as a matter of course, that if the Mexicans prefer a monarchy, it is for the 
interest of France to support, them in that path. 

There will not be wanting people who wdl ask you why we expend men and money to 
found a regular government in Mexico. 

In the present state of ihe civilization of the world, the prosperity of America is not a 
matter of indifference to Kurope, for it is that country which feeds our manufactories and 
gives an impulse to our commerce. We have an interest in the republic of the United 
States being powerful and prosperous, but not that she should take possession of the whole 
of the Gulf of Mexico, thence command the Antilles as well as South America, and be the 
only dispenser of the products of the New World. 

We now see, by sad experience, how precarious is the lot of a branch of manufacture 
which is compelled to procure its raw material in a single maiket, all the vicissitudes of 
which it has to bear. 

If, on the contrary, Mexico maintains her independence and the integrity of her territory, 
if a stable government be there constituted with the assistance of France, we shall have 
restored to the Latin race on the other side the Atlantic all its strength and its prestige ; 
we shall have guaranteed security to our West India colonies and to those of Spain ; we 
shall have established our fi iendly influence in the centre of America ; and that influence, by 
creating immense markets for our commerce, will procure us the raw materials indispensable 
for our manufactures. 

Mexico thus regenerated will always be well-disposed towards us, not only out of grati- 
tude, but also because her interests will be in accord with ours, and because she will find 
support in her friendly relations with European powers. 

At present, therefore, our military honor engaged, the necessities of our policy, the 
interests of our industry and commerce, all conspire to make it our duty to march on 
Mexico, to boldly plant our Hag there, and to establish either a monarchy, if not incom- 
patible with the national feeling, or at least a government which may promise some stability. 

NAPOLEON".' 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 191 

The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, June 23, 1862. 
Monsieur le Ministre : I have received a copy of a protest signed by the French of th 
city of Mexico against the inflammatory attacks and the calumnious accusations of which 
the policy of the Emperor has been the object on the part of some persons who give them- 
selves out as the interpreters of the French colony. This protest has already been signed 
by more than three hundred Frenchmen, among whom figure all that are in any way 
respectable among our colony in the capital. I am informed of two or three hundred 
other adhesions which it was impossible to collect for want of time. I hasten to send this 
document to your excellency. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



[Annexed document.] 
Protest of the members of the French colony in the city of Mexico. 

Mexico, May, 1862. 

The undersigned, in obedience to the necessities of their position in the city of Mexico, 
and aware that it does not belong to them to take an active part in the questions and' 
events in agitation at the present time, have abstained from protesting publicly against 
the injuries, the calumnies, and the insensate outrages directed against the French army, 
against the government of France and its representatives. 

But what the undersigned consider as an imperious duty, is to protest loudly against the- 
strange pretensions of certain persons to present themselves as the legitimate organs of the 
sentiments and ideas of the French population ; is, also, to protest energetically against 
certain publications, signed or not signed, called forth by influences now well known, and 
destined — so it is asserted in them — to enlighten the government of the mother country in 
regard to the real interests of the French colony in Mexico. 

The undersigned, therefore, declare that they repudiate all sort of sympathy with the 
ideas expressed in these writings ; and inspired by the sentiment of national dignity, as 
well as by reason and justice, they await, full of hope and confidence, the accomplishment 
of the noble mission confided to the honor and loyalty of France. 

[Here follow 314 signatures ] 



The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Okizaba, July 17, 1862. 

Monsieur le Ministre : I lose no time informing you that M. Dastugnes, one of the most 
estimable members of the French colony at Mexico, has been recently carried off, at the- 
very gates of the capital, by the notorious Cuellar, long a highway robber, now a colonel 
in the troops of Juarez, who would have threatened our countryman to shoot him unless 
he paid a ransom fixed at first at 2,000 piastres, subsequently at 5,000. Here is what has 
been written to me on this subject : 

" I am authoiized to bring to your knowledge a new and odious outrage committed on- 
the person of one of our countrymen. M. P. Dastugnes, the French citizen who has been 
several times robbed already, as well by the liberal as by the reactionary bands, and whose 
claims appear in the archives of the imperial legation, was seized some eight days ago at 
some leagues from the city of Mexico and carried off prisoner by Cuellar. 

"A sum of 2,000 piastres was first demanded for his liberation, a sum which it is utterly 
impossible for him to pay ; some days afterwards the ransom was raised to 5,000 piastres, 
a threat to shoot him if the amount stipulated was not remitted within a very short period. 
His family is ignorant whether these threats have been carried into execution, though 
there is reason to fear that they have, for these bands a short time ago hung several per- 
sons who were unable to pay the wretches. 

"It has seemed proper to inform you of this new outrage committed at the gates of 
Mexico. Although in the present state of things your protection is powerless for us, it is- 
well that you should know that this unfortunate government is powerless to perform the 
first duty imposed on every government worthy of that name, that of protecting persons 
and property. And yet it proclaims itself the representative of progress, the defender of 
guarantees, of liberty, of democracy. 



192 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

"Indeed, we feel the blush rise to our cheek at the idea that people allow themselves 
to he carried away by these senseless words, especially when they are sincerely devoted to 
the cultivation of liberal ideas. Experience now is precise and positive. What individual 
is there of the slightest honor and intelligence who does not understand that there is no 
salvation possible for Mexico except by means of intervention vigorously conducted, which 
may organize this country, now fallen into dissolution, and rescue it from the miserable 
condition in which it is now deeply buried ? We know that you have thus understood the 
question, and what efforts you have made and are making to produce a result which may 
assure at the same time the future of the country and that of your countrymen, not allowing 
yourself to be moved by the nameless injuries and outrages of which you are the object, 
and which are for you a source of honor at the very time that they degrade the stupid 
government which tolerates them, if it does not even excite them. For the rest, I believe 
I can affirm that these outrages have excited the disgust of the immense majority of the 
French population, and that they await the moment of being able to manifest the senti- 
ments of gratitude with which they are animated towards you. You have been already 
enabled to know their sentiments in reading the protest of which you will probably have 
received a copy, and which is now signed with more than 500 signatures. It is a peremp- 
tory reply to the proceedings of some Frenchmen, very limited in number, who would 
willingly sacrifice to their personal interests the interests and future of the whole French 
population in Mexico. This population has faith in you, Monsieur le Ministre, and firmly 
trusts that the French government will accomplish in its entire extent the mission of 
justice and humanity which it has commenced." 

This letter renders any reflections on my part entirely superfluous. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The French Minuter in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, August 20, 1862. 

Monsieur le Ministre : In spite of the denials and threats resorted to by the government 
to terrify the French of the capital, new signatures have been added to the protest of our 
countrymen enclosed to you in my despatch of June 23 ; a new list which has reached me, 
and which I have the honor herewith to transmit to yon, increases to 450 the number of 
adhesions received up to the 22d of Julv. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, October 2, 1862. 
Monsieur le Mixistre : I wrote some time ago to your excellency that the government 
of Juarez, seriously excited by the protest spontaneously signed by the French of the capital, 
had set its police at work to prevent the circulation of the list and the addition of new 
signatures. A person who has recently arrived from the city of Mexico advises me of 
another manoeuvre of the administration. For some time past the agents of government 
have been presenting themselves before our countrymen in order to summon them to declare 
categorically, and in writing, whether they are for or against the intervention, not leaving 
them in ignorance of the fact that on this declaration on their part depended the question 
of knowing whether they should be expelled or not from the territory of the republic. 
This question of the expulsion of the French is, moreover, the order of the day among the 
journals of Juarez, as also in the clubs and patriotic juntas organized by the police who 
proclaim themselves almost unanimously for the affirmative. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, October 6, 1862. 
I have heretofore iufuimed your excellency that the journals of the government and the 
patriotic juntas of the city of Mexico loudly demanded that all the French who did not 
publicly declare against the French intervention should be expelled, and that their goods 
should be confiscated. A sheet established by Juarez to excite the evil passions of the 
ma-ses, La Cuchara, goes still further ; it desires to have all our countrymen constrained, 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 193 

under pain of expulsion, not only to place their fortunes at the disposal of Juarez, but to 
take up arms to combat, under the command of Mexican officers, the flag of their country. 
In the fear that certain persons might be .tempted to cry out at this as exaggeration, I 
annex here the article of that journal which proposes the measure as a very simple thing. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, Octoher 8, 1862. 

The Monitor Republicano of the 3d of October speaks of arrests that have been made in 
the capital among Mexicans and French. Chief among the former are mentioned the 
three generals Santiago, Miguel Blanco, and Guitian, as well as several other persons 
belonging to the first classes of society. As to the French, the number of those thrown 
into prison by Juarez is, it is said, quite considerable, and comprises some who have been 
his partisans. Many persons here seem to fear that extreme acts of violence may be resorted 
to against our unfortunate fellow-countrymen. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The French Minister in Mexico to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Orizaba, October 11, 1862. 

Monsieur lb Ministrb: I hasten to transmit to you such items of information from the 
city of Mexico as are worthy of credit. In the evening of September 16, the festival day 
of independence, sixteen houses inhabited by French were assailed with stones by bands of 
ruffians, shouting cries of " Death to them!" "Windows, doors, and fronts of shops were 
broken, and two Frenchmen were wounded. No measures were taken to prevent these 
disorders, which, however, might have been easily expected, since previously, on the night 
of the 15th, such cries had been raised. 

We cannot in any way regard these disorders as a manifestation of public opinion. 
Two bands of two or three hundred individuals at most, composed of children, mob-leaders, 
and that rabble which it is always so easy to collect in a large city, will never prove the 
spontaneous and irresistible enthusiasm of a population of two huDdred thousand souls. 
It has required the daily harangues of the newspapers and clubs, the incendiary speeches 
delivered on the evening of the 15th in the theatres, and on the evening of the 16th at 
the Alameda, and finally the excitement of the festival, to arrive at this sad result. It has 
required especially the carelessness or the ill-will of the administration, which, with a 
garrison, of two or three thousand men and a strong police, could not or would not main- 
tain order, when a hundred men properly employed would have sufficed for the purpose. 

What the Mexican government, although not disposed to recoil from any measures, be 
they as tyrannical or as odious as they may, cannot procure for itself, is the money neces- 
sary for the support of troops and the purchase of materials indispensable for the execution 
of works of defence. The people reduced to the most frightful misery, laboring under 
the absolute impossibility of paying the forced loans with which they crush them down 
every day, their property is seized and exposed to sale ; but no purchasers present them- 
selves. Then a resolution is adopted to issue about fiften millions of piasters in paper 
money having compulsory circulation. The question is asked, What do the representatives 
of England and the United States intend to do in presence of this measure which so 
seriously affects the English and the Americans 1 

The question was always agitated as to whether all our countrymen should be expelled 
in a body from the territory of the republic. But it has been decided to expel those who 
were arrested at the commencement of this month. They were to be conveyed to Aca- 
pulco, on the Pacific. It is to be feared that, for many among them at least, expulsion 
under such circumstances may be equivalent to a condemnation to death. 

DUBOIS DE SALIGNY. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French AWiasss-.. dor at Madrid. 

Paris, December 22, 1862. 
Sir : I have received the despatches which you have done me the honor to write to me, 
and I have laid before the Emperor those in which you give me an account of the discus- 
sion which took place in the Spanish senate in reference to the affairs in Mexico. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 13 



194 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The speech delivered by the minister of state of her Catholie Majesty in that discussion 
contains, in regard to the events that have occurred in Mexico since the signing of the 
treaty of London, aFsertions and conclusions which it will not behoove us, perhaps, to leave 
unanswered. I might at present confine mysdf to saying that the explanations furnished 
by his excellency M. Billault to the legislative body, and since developed in the corre- 
spondence of my predecessor, retain all their effect in the eyes of the Emperor's govern 
ment ; and permit me, before replying to the speech of M. Calderon Collantes, to wait until 
the result of the debates entered upon in the Cortes has indicated the necessity of it to me. 

There is one point, however, which appears to me to call forth on my part an immediate 
explanation ; I mean the exchange of ideas which has taken place between the Marquis of 
Havana and myself in reference to the eventual return of Spain to a community of action 
■with France, and I also refer to the notes exchanged between us, and in which these ideas 
are expressed. The words uttered by the minister of state in regard to this diplomatic 
incident have been A r ariously repeated, and, as far as regards the opinion expressed by him 
on the dispositions of the two cabinets, and on the import of the engagements entered 
into, there has resulted at least an obscurity which it is our common interest to dispel. 
The affairs of Mexico have been the occasion of confusion and misunderstanding between 
us and the Queen's government too frequent not to compel me to be as precise and specific 
as possible in rendering the terms of the intercommunications in question, and the worth 
of the assurances which have been the consequences of them. M. Calderon Collantes, 
moreover, not having deemed it proper to lay before the Cortes the written documents of 
this negotiation, I believe it my duty to annex them to this despatch, although they be 
all well known to you already, accompanying them with such explanations as seem proper 
to be made. 

Upon my entrance into the ministry, the Marquis of Havana, inspired with that cordiality 
of sentiment which he has invariably manifested during the whole course of his mission, 
came to acquaint me with the desire of his government to re-establish with us, in reference 
to the affairs of Mexico, the accord unfortunately broken, and to inquire into the condi- 
tions of the future co-operation of the two powers. In his opinion the treaty of London 
was not annulled by the dissension that arose between the parties signing it ; it was simply 
suspended ; the end was not obtained. To the exclusion of all particular advantages, each 
of the three powers was always entitled to seek the satisfaction demanded for the injuries 
which it had received, the indemnities due for the damages sustained by its citizens, and 
guarantees for the future. France would certainly accomplish, to her glory, the woik of 
■war which henceforward she supported alone ; but the assistance of Sp.iin would become 
necessary to her, or very useful, at least, to pacify that country and conclude a solid peace, 
from which the interests of none of the powers that signed the treaty of London would 
have to suffer. If, to obtain these results, the occupation of the capital or of some other 
points of Mexico was judged indispensable, the Queen's government was ready to come to 
an understanding with that of the Emperor in order to determine the number of troops to 
be furnished, and to indicate the way in which they should be employed. 

These considerations, developed by the ambassador of Spain, were resumed in a note 
■which he addressed to me in the course of the month of October, and which you will find 
hereunto annexed, under the designation of No. 1. 

I was enabled to dispense with entering on any discussion with the Marquis of Havana 
in reference to anterior events, to which I had personally remained a stranger, and I have 
been fortunate enough'under these circumstances, to avoid any recrimination with him in 
regard to the past. I had found, as I said to him, France alone at war with Mexico. The 
question of inquiring whether the treaty which had regulated the co-operation of the three 
powers was yet in force, when two of them had abandoned the enterprise commenced in 
common, appeared to me to have become a purely theoretic investigation, and without 
any practical application to the circumstances. We were fully impressed with the imp >rt- 
ance of the moral and material assistance which Spain would bring in a common work. 
but accomplished facts had'imposed a position upon us which we had accepted, ami which 
was for the moment governed by the interests of our military dignity and honor. We ilid 
not, for the rest, contest the right of cither Spain or England to follow up their claims ; 
we thought, whilst congiatulat'ng ourselves for it. that the expedition with which we 
found ourselves alone charged would turn to their advantage, and we would be happy, 
when the proper time arrived, to come to an nndei standing with our allies, in order to 
consolidate the results. I committed these explanations to an unofficial note which I 
transmitted to the Marquis of Havana on the 27th of October, (annexed document, No. 2,) 
in reply to that which he had addressed to me. 

Always anxious to efface any traces which might hive been left in our relations with 
Spain by the dissensions that separated us in Mexico, the Marquis of Havana nevertheless 
persisted with the most honorable solicitude to devise some means for the renewal of the 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 195 

good understanding of which his high intelligence of the best interests of his country- 
caused him to appreciate the value. He did not cease to have interviews with me on this 
subject full of mutual confidence. 

The ambassador of Spain thought that it would be desirable tbat plenipotentiaries should 
be nominated by Spain and England before the operations of our army were accomplished ; 
moreover, he judged it useful to suspend for the present the mode of procedure for the 
establishment of a national government in Mexico, and he suggested a system already in- 
dicated by his government in 1860. The Marquis of Havana desired to communicate to 
me a draught of an unofficial note which he had prepared on these bases. I had to decline 
these new proposals, and if I mention them now, though they did not produce any result, 
it is because one of the accounts of the part of the speech of M. Calderon Collantes, w ich 
refers to those negotiations, would tend to make us suppose that we had actually entered 
into engagements analogous to those which the Marquis of Havana proposed to us, whilst 
it is precisely for not having entered into such an engagement that I requested the ambas- 
sador of Spain to consider as not sent the note which he had desired to submit to me pre- 
liminarily. I had in fact to remind him of the rights which accrued to us from our state 
of war ; we could not admit any control or any restriction in the exercise which we made 
of those rights. We were carrying on war ; peace should result from it ; when and how I 
could not tell him. At the distance at which we were from the scene of events, I could 
not anticipate them by hypothetical calculations. I could still less bind myself by engage- 
ments which accomplished facts in Mexico might, perhaps, have weakened before they were 
known there. Moreover, there was no question for us about founding and constituting a. 
government, and the proposition even of the Marquis of Havana seemed to me, moreover,, 
to take too little account of the part which it belongs to the Mexicans to act in such a 
work. We had no need of returning to what we had so often repeated, of our desire to. 
see that country profit by the crisis through which it was passing in order to make its regen- 
eration arise from it, and of our good will to aid it in the efforts which it might make in 
order to attain that object ; but the work of its salvation is above all its own ; it is not ours. 
If our troops enter the city of Mexico in triumph, we know not what influence that event may 
have on the country ; we do not wish to exclude any combination in advance, nor to restrict 
the use which the Mexican nation may be able to make of its sovereign rights ; if the 
government, whatever it may be, which it may choose to select, offers us sufficient guaran- 
tees, our clearest interests will counsel us to labor for its consolidation. Whatever may 
happen, Mexico will never be for us either a conquest or a colony ; our interests there will 
consequently never be opposed to those of Spain or England. We could, therefore, only 
receive with eagerness their concurrence, of which we highly appreciate the potent efficacy, 
in order to consolidate a state of things which might assure us all the guarantees claimed 
on the same grounds by the interests of all the powers. 

I added, finally, that before resuming with our allies of the treaty of London a negotia- 
tion destined to regulate a new understanding, it was necessary to be assured of the dispo- 
sition of the English cabinet, and that I had no indication up to that time to authorize 
me to judge of it in advance. 

The ambassador of Spain was eager to take note of these considerations, and he addressed 
to me, on the 29th of November, the note hereunto annexed under the designation of No. 
3, in which he expressed to me a desire to see the Emperor's government indicate the time 
and the means which appeared to it most proper to arrive at such »n agreement. I has- 
tened to reply to the Marquis of Havana on the 1st of December, (annexed document No. 
4,) "That as soon as the present phase of military operations should be terminated, the 
imperial government would be disposed to invite the two powers that signed with it the 
treaty of London to send to Mexico plenipotentiaries specially appointed for this purpose 
(ad hoc,) who had not been engaged in the previous transactions, in order to advise in con- 
cert upon the means of consolidating a state of affairs in Mexico that might insure the 
prosperity of the country and offer guarantees of security to the interests of foreign na- 
tions." I added that the Emperor's government would consider the declarations contained 
in the present note as final, as soon as the governments of Spain and England had given 
their adherence to them. 

Such, sir, is the last act of that negotiation, the various incidents of which it has ap- 
peared useful to me to repeat, before setting forth the conclusion to be derived from them, 
and in order the better to illustrate their character and value. It is my duty, in conclu- 
sion, to say that the ambassador of Spain brought to the negotiation a mind entirely free 
from prejudice, and a frankness and straightforwardness of purpose to which I am highly 
pleased to be here able to render homage. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 



196 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



[Annexed Document No. 1.] 

Unofficial note transmitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs by his Excellency the Marquis of Havana, 

ambassador of Spain at Paris. 

October, 1862. 

The government of her Catholic Majesty has declared on several occasions that it did 
not consider the treaty of London of the date of Octoher 31, 1861, as annulled, but only 
as suspended, and that, in its opinion, it could he replaced in full force by the agreement 
of the powers which had signed it. 

The purpose of the treaty was to obtain the satisfaction due for the offences committed 
against the contracting governments, indemnity for the wrongs endured by their subjects, 
and, as far as possible, some guarantee that similar acts should not be repeated in future. 

No one of these results has yet been obtained ; the disagreement supervening between 
the plenipotentiaries and among the chiefs of the expedition arrested their course, just at 
the very moment when that expedition seemed in the way of attaining the end which the 
powers had proposed to themselves. 

Since then the French government pursues its task alone. Without the slightest doubt, 
it will triumph over all armed resistance that it may encounter ; nevertheless it is to be 
feared that obstacles of another nature my prevent it from causing the Mexican republic to 
enter on a solid and stable career, which, by insuring internal order, may externally pre- 
sent a guarantee for the execution of any engagements entered into by its government ; 
for this latter, notwithstanding all the liberty allowed to the country in order to reconsti- 
tute itself, might be considered as imposed by France. 

The community of action stipulated by the treaty of London would have avoided this 
grave inconvenience, seeing that the three powers which signed that treaty had engaged 
themselves, on the one part, to abstain from all intervention in the internal affairs of Mex- 
ico calculated to infringe on the rights of the Mexican nation to choose the form of gov- 
ernment which suited it, and on the other, not to seek, for any territorial acquisitions or 
special advantages for themselves 

Taking the existence of the treaty of London as a starting point, the contracting powers 
would have to settle the amount of the claims which they have to exact from the Mexican 
government, and the guarantees which the latter would have to give to insure the execu- 
tion of its engagements and to avoid the repetition of former offences. It is evideut, more- 
over, that if the allied governments ought to remain free to decide on the claims which 
they will judge it their duty to maintain, it would nevertheless be proper not to place 
Mexico in a state of impossibility to acquit herself of the engagements by which she may 
have bound herself. Moreover, this would be no more than adhering to the spirit of the 
treaty of London, which was not signed for the purpose of crushing out Mexican nation- 
ality, but rather, on the contrary, to aid it to recover from the state of anarchy in which 
the country has been so long plunged. 

This suffices to explain the ideas of the government of her Catholic Majesty ; however, 
it is not useless to add that if, in order to obtain the results indicated, the temporary occu- 
pation of the capital of the republic or of other points of its territory was judged nects- 
sary, the Queen's government would find itself ready to enter into a special agreement, 
haviug for its end to fix the forces which each power might have to send thither and the 
posts which they should have to occupy. 

Under the influence of these ideas, her Catholic Majesty's government is disposed to take 
part in any new conferences destined to attain the object which the three powers proposed 
to themselves by the treaty of the 31st of October last. 

The Emperor's government, if it shares in this way of thinking, may impart these ideas 
to the cabinet of her Britannic Majesty. 



[Annexed Document No. 2.] 
Unofficial Note addressed to the Spanish Ambassador by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

October 29, 1862. 

The minister of foreign affairs has examined with the most serious attention the un- 
official note which the ambassador of Spain has dune me the honor of transmitting to me 
in reference to the afiaiis of Mexico. 

After having reviewed the essential objects which the three powers proposed to them- 
selves to realize, when signing the treaty of October 31, 186 1, at London, the note ex- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 197 

presses regret that the course of the expedition sent to Mexico should have been arrested 
in consequence of the disagreement supervening between the plenipotentiaries and the 
respective commanders at the very moment that the object was about to be attained. 

His imperial Majesty's minister cannot but share this regret, but, without desiring to 
re-enter here on a retrospective discussion which has already been sufficiently elucidated 
by the correspondence of his predecessor, he will confine himself to expressing, in his turn, 
the conviction that the Emperor's government has faithfully interpreted the treaty of 
October 31, and that, if it has thought proper to act alone where it had no more ardent 
desire than that of operating in concert with its allies, it is because it has not depended 
upon it to conciliate the divergencies which have been produced, and because it has 
judged that the honor of its flag and the care of its interests imposed on it the obligation 
of continuing alone the work on which it has entered. 

It appears from the note of his Excellency the Marquis of Havana that the government 
of her Catholic Majesty would be disposed now to come to an understanding with those of 
France and England, for the purpose of determining, in special conferences, the measures 
which it might be opportune to adopt in concert, and the number of troops which each 
one of the powers should have to furnish in case the temporary occupation of the city of 
Mexico or of other points in the country should be judged necessary to produce the 
results indicated by the treaty of 1860. 

The Emperor's government appreciates, as becomes it, those suggestions, and his Majes- 
ty's minister of foreign affairs is pleased to acknowledge the good intentions which 
dictated them. Impressed with the importance of the moral and material support of its 
allies, it cannot, however, lose sight of the state of affairs which accomplished facts have 
imposed upon it. Very far, moreover, from wishing, even in the most indirect manner, to 
contest the right of Spain or England to pursue their legitimate claims upon Mexico, it 
entertains the confidence, on the contrary, that the expedition, of which, by force of cir- 
cumstances, it now finds itself alone compelled to bear the burden, will turn to the ad- 
vantage of those two powers at the same time as to its own. It looks with the sincerest 
wishes for the moment when, the efforts of its arms having obtained the success which it 
would have been happy to pursue in common with its allies, it will be permitted to re- 
sume serious negotiations with Mexico, to insure, with complete satisfaction of pending 
claims, the security which up to this time has been wanting to the persons and property of 
foreigners resident in that country, and to accomplish, in fine, in a new understanding 
with Spain and England, the enterprise commenced in common, and to the success of 
which their cordial co-operation can so powerfully contribute. 



[Annexed Document No. 3.] 

Unofficial note transmitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs by tht Spanish Ambassador. 

November 29, 1862. 

In the unofficial note concerning the affairs of Mexico, addressed to the ambassador of 
her Catholic Majesty, under date of the 29th of October last, by the minister of foreign 
affairs, his excellency declared that if, by the force of accomplished facts, France has 
found herself under the necessity of pursuing alone the expedition commenced in common, 
she did not the less long most ardently for the moment when the efforts of her arms 
would permit the final accomplishment of the enterprise, under a new understanding, fir 
the success of which enterprise the cordial co-operation of the powers that signed the 
treaty of London can so powerfully contribute. 

In thus expressing himself the minister of foreign affairs gives it to be understood that, 
in his opinion, it would be difficult to arrive at a new agreement before the French troops 
entered the capital of the Mexican republic. 

Without wishing to dispute the validity of this opinion, her Catholic Majesty's ambas- 
sador thinks that it would be desirable to see the Emperor's government now indicate the 
time and the means which would appear to it the most suitable to come to that agree- 
ment. 

It is not solely in the interest of the Spanish claims in Mexico that the ambassador of 
Spain proposes to the Emperor's government to make this declaration ; he thinks that its 
advantages would make themselves more especially felt by the confidence which it would 
be destined to inspire into the people of the republic, who would recognize, by this act, 
that the Emperor's government has not ceased to consider as still in force the declaration 
contained in Article 2 of the treaty of London, in accordance with which the powers 
signing it should abstain from exercising their influence on the right of the Mexicans to 
choose and freely constitute the form of their government. 



198 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

[Annexed Document No. 4.] 
Unofficial note transmitted to the Spanish Ambassador by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

December 1, 1862. 

His excellency the ambassador of Spain, in a note of the 29th of November last, after 
having referred to the conciliatory disposition manifested by the minister of foreign affairs 
of France on the subject of the eventual re-establishment of a mutual understanding in 
regard to the affairs of Mexico as soon as circumstances will allow it, expresses the desire 
that the Emperor's government should now indicate the time and the means which would 
appear to it the most proper to come to this agreement. It is not solely in the interest of 
the Spanish claims that the Marquis of Havana proposes to make this declaration. Accord- 
ing to his excellency, the advantages of it would make themselves more especially felt by 
the confidence which it would inspire into the Mexican people, who would by this fact 
recognize that the Emperor's government has not ceased to consider as yet in force the 
principle laid down in Article 2 of the treaty of London. 

In spite of the change which has been produced in the attitude and in the conduct of his 
allies the Emperor has not modified his first intentions. So the minister of foreign affairs does 
not hesitate to reply to his excellency the ambassador of her Catholic Majesty, that as 
soon as the phase of military operations shall be terminated, the imperial government will 
be disposed to invite the two powers that .signed with it the aforesaid treaty to send to 
Mexico plenipotentiaries named for that especial purpose, (ad hoc,) and who have not been 
engaged in any of the previous transactions, to advise in concert on the means of consoli- 
dating in Mexico a state of things which may insure the prosperity of the country, and 
offer guarantees of security to the interests of foreign nations. 

As to the agreement on the claims which the three powers ought to exact from Mexico, 
it is understood that those of Spain and England cannot be any obstacle to the demands 
which France will have to present in consequence of the war which she has seen herself 
obliged to maintain. 

The Emperor's government will consider the declarations contained in the present note 
as final as soon as the governments of Spain and England shall have given their adherence 
to them. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Madrid. 

Paris, December 23, 1862. 

Sir : I have received the despatches which you have done me the honor to address to me ; 
your telegraphic messages of the 19th and 20th of this month have likewise reached me, 
and I am therefore enabled to form an entirely correct estimate of the consequences and 
conclusion of the incident originated by the language used by M. Calderon Collantes, before 
the senate in the session of the 13th. That language was calculated to alter the sense of 
the explanations that took place between that minister and yourself in reference to various 
circumstances of the Mexican affair, and especially in regard to the estimate of which the 
treaty of La Soledad had been the object, and to place in doubt the perfect correctness of 
the advices which you had transmitted to the government of the Emperor. 

The telegraphic despatch which I had the honor of addressing to you on the 18th will 
have shown you, sir, all the importance that the Emperor's government attached to the 
fact that the assertions of the first secretary of state of her Catholic Majesty, made in op- 
position to those which you had set down in your correspondence with my predecessor, 
should become on your part the object for a demand for immediate reparation. It is, then, 
with satisfaction that I have learned that you had anticipated in this regard the instructions 
which I have transmitted to you by order of his Majesty. 

The Emperor, to whom I have given an account of your proceedings, has been pleased 
to approve of them, and, as I have hastened to announce to you by telegraph, his Majesty 
authorizes you to consider as a sufficient satisfaction the words which M. Calderon Collantes 
has pronounced before the senate, in the session of the 18th. Those explanations, in fact, 
under a form more or less obscure, contain an evident retraction of the allegations which 
had provoked our legitimate susceptibilities, and the notoriety which has not failed to follow 
the demand for reparation which you addressed to the first secretary of state cannot but 
contribute to render still more complete the satisfaction which has been given to us. You 
may, then, consider this affair as ended. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 199 



The French Minister at Washington to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Washington, April 3, 1863. 
M. IB Ministre : Mr. Seward tells me that I may assure your excellency that I was per- 
fectly right in representing him as having always at heart a desire to avoid giving us any 
cause of complaint on the Mexican question ; that his policy has not ceased to be frank and 
open, and that in all his correspondence not one word could be found to testify the slightest 
participation in any combinations directed against the government of the Emperor, or 
which would excite his susceptibility. 

MERCIER. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to M. Mercier, at Washington. 

Paris, April 23, 1863. 
Sir: I send you a copy of a letter from the minister of the United States at London, 
which has just been published in the English papers. Written, as you see, to the com- 
mander of the federal fleet, it has for its object to request him to allow free passage for 
arms and munitions of war sent from England to Matamoras by Mexican agents. This 
document reveals too plainly with what sentiments the representative of the United States 
is inspired in regard to us in this circumstance to allow me to refrain from explaining my- 
self to Mr. Dayton on the matter. I have done so in friendly but strong terms, and I 
have deemed it proper, moreover, to embody the observations suggested to me by this 
straDge incident in an unofficial note which I have transmitted to him, and of which you 
will find a copy enclosed. That such shipments as those in question should not be arrested 
by the American cruisers is not what we have to complain of, but we have reason to con- 
sider ourselves aggrieved at the conduct of Mr. Adams in giving such a preliminary assur- 
ance to the consigners, and thus contributing, as far as it depends on him, to the success 
of unlawful operations directed against us. Perhaps, nevertheless, I would not have be- 
stowed so much attention on this singular document emanating from Mr. Adams if, at the 
same moment, your correspondence had not made me acquainted with the very different 
and entirely friendly language used to you by Mr. Seward. It is enough to compare it 
with the letter written by the minister of the United States at London in order to be struck 
with the contradiction which exists between the attitude of this latter agent and the dis- 
position with which he ought to show himself animated, in order to correspond with the 
sentiments of his government. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 



The French Minister at Washington to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

Washington, May 8, 1863. 

M. lb Ministre : I received yesterday the despatch which your excellency has done me 
the honor of addressing me on the subject of the letter written by Mr. Adams to the com- 
manders of the federal cruisers to request them to let freely pass such arms and munitions 
of war as are sent from England to Matamoras by Mexican agents. 

On the same day I waited upon the Secretary of State to inform him of the impression 
made on the Emperor's government by such a proceeding on the part of the representative 
of the United States at London. 

As he had already received advice of the unofficial note which your excellency' had 
on that occasion placed in the hands of Mr. Dayton, he expected my call. After I had un- 
folded to him the observations which I had been charged to make to him, and which con- 
firmed those which I had hastened to make to him of my own accord as soon as I had 
learned through the newspapers of the letter of Mr. Adams, Mr. Seward entered into some 
explanations tending to exonerate entirely the cabinet of Washington from any responsi- 
bility for the affair. I replied to him that, in my correspondence with your excellency I 
had always made it my duty to render full justice to the honorable and loyal attitude which 
he had at no time failed to maintain in the Mexican question. 

MERCIER. 



200 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to M. Mercier, at Washington. 

Paris, June 4, 1863. 

Mr. Dayton has read to me a letter addressed to him by Mr. Seward in reference to 
that addressed by Mr. Adams to the commanders of the federal cruisers. The Secretary of 
State explains himself to Mr. Dayton in regard to that circumstance in the same manner 
that he did to you in your last interview. According to him, what Mr. Adams desired to 
effect was merely that the federal cruisers should prevent all transportation of arms to the 
south, without troubling themselves with other transportations of the same nature for a 
different destination, whatever that destination might be. Mr Seward, moreover, recog- 
nizes that the document emanating from the American minister at London apparently 
manifests an unkindly disposition, entirely at variance with the sentiments of friendship 
which we have reason to expect from the cabinet of Washington, and with which it is sin- 
cerely animated in our regard. Therefore he does not hesitate to consider the letter of Mr. 
Adams as an ill-considered proceeding. 

In presence of these declarations I had no further cause to insist with Mr. Dayton on what 
there might be to regret in the conduct of his colleague at London. 

DEOUYN DE LHUYS. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to M. Mercier, at Washington. 

PARIS, September 15, 1863. 

Sir : Mr. Dayton, who exhibits in his relations with me a great confidence, and a rectitude 
to which I am pleased to bear testimony, has been moved at certain minors, propagated with 
a design which I have not now to inquire into, but which appear lately to have obtained 
some credit at Paris, and he has come to converse with me about them. According to these 
reports, too inconsiderately accepted, the Emperor's government has decided to recognize the 
States of the south, and a treaty has even been already signed, according to which the new 
confederacy is to cede to France, either for herself, or that she may make a retrocession of 
them to Mexico, Texas and -a portion of Louisiana. 

At the moment in which Mr. Dayton was imparting to me this information, I was exactly 
in a position to offer him information for information, and, before answering the questions 
which he addressed me, I asked him if, among the alarming symptoms for the maintenance 
of the good relations of the two countries, he had not, like myself, received other news, like- 
wise diffused in public, such as, for instance, the transmission by him to me of a protest from 
his government against our expedition to Mexico and its consequences ; the conclusion of an 
alliance, offensive and defensive, between the United States and Russia; the appearance of a 
federal fleet before "Sera Cruz, &c, &c. 

In regard to the protest, after remarking to me that I, better than any one else, knew that 
he had not transmitted to me any, Mr. Dayton said to me that, under the promptings of the 
general tenor of the correspondence of Mr. Seward, and of the knowledge which he himself 
had of the inclinations of his fellow-citizens, he had beeu able to speak to me of the painful 
impression produced on public opinion in his country by the preponderant intervention of a 
European power in an American republic, and by the creation of a monarchical establishment 
in a country adjacent to the United States ; but that from that to a protest, or to any inten- 
tion whatever of comminatory intermeddling, was very far, and that nothing in his instruc- 
tions authorized him to overleap that distance. He knew nothing, on the other hand, of the 
alleged alliance of his government with Russia, and he had every reason to disbelieve it. As 
to the presence of a federal fleet before Vera Cruz, this news did not seem to him even to 
merit the honor of a contradiction. 

I told Mr. Dayton that I had never attached any importance to the reports which I had 
pointed out to him, and that, in speaking to him of them, my object was much less to call 
forth explanations on his part, than to warn him against rumors or a different character; but 
having probably the same origin of which he had spoken to me, I could, however, contradict 
them categorically. In regard' to the recognition of the States of the south, the intentions 
of the Emperor's government were known to him, and this question was still at the point 
where our late conversations had left it. We had not. therefore, recognized the south, and, 
much more, we had not signed with it any tivaty for the cession of Louisiana and Texas. 
With respect to this, I could repeat to him, what I had so often said to him already, that we 
neither sought for ourselves, nor for others, any acquisition in America. I added that I trusted 
that the good sense of the people of the United States would do justice to exaggerations and 
false suppositions, by the aid of which it was endeavored to mislead and sour public opinion j 
and that I relied on his co-operation in trying to render prevalent a more equitable apprecia- 
tion of our intentions and of the necessities which our policy obeyed. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 201 

I have thought, sir, that it was well that you should be informed of the particulars of this 
conversation, in order that you might, on your part, communicate it to Mr. Seward, and 
receive the precise words of it, in order to rectify around you false opinions and unjustifiable 
anticipations. 

Accept, sir, assurances of my high consideration. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 
Mr. Mercier, 

Minister of the Emperor at Washington, D. C. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to General Bazaine, commander-in-chief of the French forces in Mexico. 

Paris, August 14, 1863. 

General : The despatches which I receive to-day from Mexico confirm the news which had 
already reached Europe by means of the telegraph, of the important resolutions voted by the 
Assembly of Notables, at Mexico, on the 10th of last July. This news could be received only 
with sincere satisfaction by the government of the Emperor, and we congratulate ourselves 
on seeing our anticipations justified by the good sense and patriotism of the assembly. 

As you know, general, when the necessity of proceeding to obtain redress for accumu- 
lated wrongs conducted us to Mexico, the Emperor entertained the idea of the possibility 
of procuring the regeneration of that country from the very crisis brought upon it by the 
government of M. Juarez. According to his Majesty's ideas, no pressure should be exer- 
cised upon the Mexican nation ; it alone should have the right of deciding on the form of 
its institutions, and in case it should adopt a monarchical constitution, on the choice of the 
prince who should be called to reign over it. It should only know in advance that our 
moral support was pledged to all honorable and serious efforts which should be used to 
rescue the country from anarchy and dissolution. This is what, in conformity with the or- 
ders of the Emperor, the generals and all the agents of his Majesty in Mexico have had 
for their mission to cause to be well understood around them. It is, then, in the plenitude 
of its rights and in the free exercise of its independence that the Mexican nation founds, at 
this moment, its new destinies. We already see, in the vote of the Assembly of Notables, 
a spontaneous manifestation and a most imposing one of its dispositions ; but it is impor- 
tant that this vote should be confirmed and ratified as soon as possible by the assent of the 
people. We likewise applaud the choice of the eminent prince whom the assembly has 
called to the throne by an acclamation which must, in like manner, receive its definitive 
approval from the suffrages of the country. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 



The Mini&itr of Foreign Affairs to General Bazaine. 

August 17, 1863. 

General : At the moment in which you find yourself invested with, the plenitude of po- 
litical and military power, and when, thanks to the heroism of our soldiers and the skill of 
our chiefs, the elaboration of a new political regime supersedes the clash of arms in Mexico, 
I deem it useful to retrace once more the ideas with which the Emperor's government is in- 
spired. Those ideas have been most clearly indicated in the letter addressed by his Ma- 
jesty to General Forey, July 3, 1862, and to this memorable document we must always 
refer. 

I shall not return to enumerate the facts which caused our intervention, or the incidents 
too well known which have signalized the first phase of it, whilst we were engaged in col- 
lective action with other powers. I refer to them merely to recall to mind that, left alone, 
we have used our independence only to pursue the work which it was not in our power to 
accomplish in conjunction with the rest, and without deviating from the line which, from 
the beginning, we had traced out for ourselves and which we had indicated to our allies. 
In acting thus, we persist in believing that we serve the general interests of Europe. 

We have recognized that the legitimacy of our intervention resulted solely from our 
grievances against the government of that country ; we have declared that, whatever 
rights war conferred on us, we sought neither conquest nor colonial establishment, nor even 
any political or commercial advantage to the exclusion of other powers. Penetrated, how- 
ever, with the idea, which several onerous experiences justified, that an expedition, analo- 
gous to those of which the traditional proceedings of the Mexican government have so 
often imposed on us and others the necessity, would assure us only very precarious satis- 



202 ^ MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

faction and no guarantees for the future, we hare thought that it would be worthy of us 
and profitable for all to remind the Mexican people of the iniquities of their government, 
and to afford them, if they desired to avail themselves of it, the occasion and the means 
to react against the elements of dissolution accumulated on their soil by a deplorable suc- 
cession of anarchical powers. We applaud ourselves heartily now for not having despaired 
of the good sense and patriotism of the Mexican nation. For the rest, we most unequiv- 
ocally eschew, as you are aware, any intention of substituting our influence iu place of the 
free resolutions of the country ; we promise it our moral support to second whatever efforts 
it may wish to make in its own independence ; but it is from its own loins that its regen- 
eration must issue. 

We have received with pleasure, as a symptom of favorable augury, the manifestation 
of the Assembly of Notables of Mexico iu favor of the establishment of a monarchy, and 
the name of the prince called to the empire. However, as I have indicated to you in a 
preceding despatch, we can consider the votes of the Assembly at Mexico only as the first 
indication of the disposition of the country. With all the authority which attaches to the 
eminent men who compose it, the Assembly recommends to its fellow-countrymen the 
adoption of monarchical institutions, and it designates a prince for their suffrages. It be- 
longs, however, to the provisional government to collect those suffrages in such a manner 
as to banish ail doubt in regard to the expression of the will of the country. It is not my 
part to indicate to you the mode to be adopted in order that this indispensable result should 
be completely attained ; we must search for this in the local customs and institutions. 
Whether the municipalities should be called upon to declare their wishes in the different 
provinces according as they shall have recovered the free disposal of themselves, or whether 
the lists should be opened by their care in order to collect the votes, the best method will 
be that which shall insure the largest manifestation of the popular will in all its independ- 
ence and sincerity. General, the Emperor particularly recommends this essential point to 
your most careful attention. 

Other questions at the same time demand your solicitude. We have flattered ourselves 
with the idea that we represent in Mexico the cause of progress and of civilization, and our 
regard for our responsibility does not permit us to accept the species of provisional guar- 
dianship with which we are invested by circumstances, except on condition of serving that 
cause faithfully by our counsels and by our actions. From this point of view, we have to 
regret certain measures which contrast in an unfavorable manner with the ideas which we 
ought to strive to establish. Sequestrations, prohibitions, outlawries have too often been, 
in Mexico, the arms used by parties in straits, in their desperate contests — too often, indeed, 
not to interdict the use of them to a government that goes to conserve and restore. Adopted, 
doubtless, in view of the urgent necessities of which I cannot judge, they can have but a 
provisional character, and at the moment at which I write to you they are certainly re- 
voked, if they have not been already so at the reception of the instructions sent out by 
the last packet. 

The reorganization of the Mexican army is one of the most important questions which 
should, at present, occupy the attention of the provisional government and yours. It is 
the duty of the minister of war to transmit special instructions to you on this point. I 
will confine myself to saying, that, the desire of the Emperor's government being to re- 
strict, as promptly as circumstances will permit, the extent and the duration of our occu- 
pation, it is essential that this reorganization should be pushed forward with all possible 
activity, and that it is desirable that in future, and in proportion to the progress realized, 
an honorable share of duty should be assigned to the Mexican army. In the interest of 
the country and its ulterior development, as well as to provide for present necessities, I re- 
commend you to press upon the government the duty of applying its utmost care to mul- 
tiply the means of communication, and to assure, on the roads which now exist, security 
of transportation and rapid exchange of correspondence. 

Without directly substituting your initiative for that of the government, all your coun- 
sels, general, should tend to have the administration, properly so called, reconstituted in 
conditions of regularity and strength, such as may give confidence to the country and re- 
assure it against all ideas of reactionary and exclusive policy. Under the shadow of our 
flag, all parties can be worthily leconciled, and we will induce them to this ; but as we re- 
pudiate their passions, we must never allow it to serve as a shelter for them to work out 
their revenges. 

The same principles should preside over the reorganization of the judicial administra- 
tion, and you will have to recommend to the government, to be inspired with them in the 
choice of magistrates and in the impulse which it will give them, the independence and 
honesty of the magistracy being able to contribute powerfully to elevate the moral state of 
a people among whom the notions of right must have been very much blunted by the con- 
tact of so many revolutions. 

The existing administrative and judicial institutions appear, moreover, to answer the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 203 

■wants and customs of the country. Your counsels should, therefore, be directed, in this 
regard, rather to the choice of functionaries and the directions to be impressed upon them, 
than to the institutions themselves. 

It is not entirely so with regard to the finances. We have there, moreover, a direct in- 
terest, which commands us to watch more closely over the execution of such regulations 
as ought to assure to the country the benefits of a regular system of accountability. The 
proper management of the public money is the guarantee of our debts, and, from this 
point of view, we have good reason to exercise an active control over the financial admin- 
istration. We have, for the rest, as far as depended on us, facilitated its reorganization by 
assuring to it the precious support of special agents delegated for that purpose by the min- 
ister of finance. Under their enlightened influence, the germs of prosperity so varied and 
abundant which the country possesses cannot fail to be rapidly developed. 

I have spoken of our claims. They are, as you know, general, of two kinds : those 
which are anterior to the war, and those which have their origin in the war. As to the 
former, they will be all referred for examination to a commission which shall be instituted 
in connexion with my department, and which shall be composed in such a way as to assure 
an unquestionable authority to its decisions. The total amount to be presented to the 
Mexican government will be composed of the sum of all these claims that shall be recog- 
nized by the commission as legitimately founded in justice. 

As to those which proceed from the war which we are now maintaining, my colleagues 
in the departments of war and marine are occupied in combining such elements as will 
allow them to forma proper estimate of the expenses of which we shall have to claim re- 
imbursement. We shall most likely be able to transmit to you, by the next packet, the 
result of this labor, and you will then have to present to the provisional government for 
acceptance the demand for reimbursement of the sum which shall be indicated to you 

DKOUYN DE LHUYS. 



The Minister of Foreign Affairs to General Bazaine. 

General : I have communicated, as I announced to you my intention of doing, with my 
colleagues in the departments of war, marine, and finance, in order to agree upon the 
amount of indemnity for the war, for which we shall have to claim reimbursement from 
Mexico. The various items of information which were indispensable to us in order to ap- 
preciate exactly the sum total of our expenses are now in our possession. Consequently 
we shall not delay in settling definitely the figures of the sum at which this indemnity ought 
to be estimated. We had, likewise, to take into consideration, in advance, the expenses 
yet to be incurred before our forces shall have completely evacuated the Mexican territory. 
I have, therefore, conferred on this subject with my colleagues, and I shall, in all proba- 
bility, be able to transmit to the Marquis de Montholon, at the moment of his departure, 
suitable instructions to enable him to negotiate these two arrangements immediately upon 
his arrival in Mexico. 

DEOUYN DE LHUYS. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, January 31, 1864. 
Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to send to you, enclosed with this note, 
a series of articles which contain the history of political occurrences in Mexico, 
interwoven with the European interference, which it is attempted to carry into 
effect in that republic, and which demonstrate the notorious injustice of the war 
which the French government is making on my country, and the complete in- 
sufficiency and inexactness of the pretexts which have been alleged by the in- 
vader to the civilized world while pretending to justify such a war. The said 
articles were written by Mr. Lefevre, French by birth, nationality, and senti- 
ments, who has resided many years in the Mexican republic; who has witnessed, 
in person, many of the acts which he recounts ; and had access to the archives 



204 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

of the Mexican government, while writing a more extended work on the same 
events, which he published in 1862. Although they are not of official character, 
they may serve much to illustrate the truth in a question so complicated, for 
which reason I send them to your department. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration, 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc., fye., Sfc. 



[From the Daily News, Wednesday, December 30, 1863.] 

THE INTERVENTION IN MEXICO. 

No. I. — Origin of the Question. 

There are two methods of representing facts. The first and easiest, which is that followed 
by the panegyrists of established power, and assumes the legitimacy of what is done from 
the mere existence of the facts. 

Writers of the fatalistic school proceed in this manner. The secret of their reasoning is 
found in that unlucky declaration of M. de Montalembert, "Everything which is possible 
is just ;" and if we accepted such a doctrine without protest, we should have nothing more 
to do than to bow everywhere and in all things before the deification of force. All the 
logic of the writers of this school reduces itself, in fact, to this somewhat unintellectual 
glorification. 

But because the head of the French empire thinks fit to overthrow the republic of Mex- 
ico, because his troops are in possession of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, and probably by this 
time of San Luis Potosi, is that a reason for maintaining the legitimacy of a war which all 
France disapproves of, and which has never had any advocates except among the fanatics 
paid to glorify, everywhere and always, the acts of the imperial government? Assuredly 
not. 

The other school, on the contrary, considers itself bound to take everything into account. 
Its criticism maintains that every fact which takes place before our eyes proceeds logically 
from certain causes, which are always pre-existent, and that in no case can success destroy 
right. Belonging, ourselves, to this later school, it is according to its principles that we 
are about to study the circumstances which are taking place at this moment upon the ter- 
ritory of Mexico. 

And, in the first place, why has the French army interfered in the internal affairs of that 
unhappy country, and whence comes its intervention ? 

This intervention, it ought to be distinctly stated, does not proceed, as is pretty generally 
supposed, from the causes which led to the signing of the convention of the 31st of October, 
1861, and which are recorded therein. 

It would be an impeachment of the good faith of the powers whose names are at the bot- 
tom of that diplomatic document to believe for an instant in the anterior necessity of an 
armed intervention in the affairs of the country, when all the facts, on the contrary, unite in 
establishing that this eventuality had been carefully repudiated in all the diplomatic doc- 
uments exchanged between the official representatives of the three powers, ia order to 
arrive at a common understanding. Search must be made elsewhere, therefore, if the origin 
of the present intervention is to be discovered ; and however slightly we refer to what his 
taken place, we shall find that origin in the support which the ministers of the imperial 
government have constantly afforded to the reactionary parties against the liberal tend- 
encies of nearly all the people of Mexico. 

This, however, demands a word of explanation. 

In 1856 Mexico, weary of a system of pronunciamientos, a system which had lasted for 
forty years, rose against General Santa Anna, the last representative of that unenlightened 
system, and the insurrection, soon driving before it the defenders of the despot, arrived vic- 
torious even in the capital itself, where it installed General Alvarez at first, and M. Comon- 
fort afterwards, as provisional presidents of a de facto government. This was the legitimate 
insurrection of the interests of the mauy against the privileges of the few ; the victory of 
right over might ; and to put an end in future to the pronunciamicntos which were ruining and 
demoralizing the country, it was resolved to solemnly proclaim in a charter the rights and 
duties of every one. 

This charter — an expression of the ideas and of the wishes of the entire country, inas- 
much as the representatives of all the people of Mexico were summoned to discuss it — was 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 205 

concluded on the 12th of January, 1857. After being voted by the constituent assembly, 
it was submitted to the ratification of the people, was voluntarily accepted by all the States 
of the republic, and received the special oath of M. Comonfort, appointed President iu virtue 
of article 75, on the 1st of December of the same year. 

Finally, to conclude with the reforms of this period, we ought to add that the vote of 
the constitution had been preceded by two laws, the object of one of which was to come to 
the assistance of property by bringing mortmain property into circulation ; while the other 
suppressed all special jurisdictions known under the name of fueros eeclesiastiques et militaires, 
and subjected to the undeviating regulations of general law the members, until then priv- 
ileged, of the army and the clergy. 

There was, however, no spoliation. The property rights of the chapters and convents 
were openly recognized ; and to indemnify the clergy, it was decided that the revenue of 
all real property should be capitalized, by taking for basis of estimate the annual value of 
the said property, as representing a sum lent at 6 per cent, per annum, but that the capital 
in question should be repaid to the chapters and convents by the principal tenant, substi- 
tuted by the terms of the new law, as proprietor, for the rights of the clergy henceforth 
barred. 

It was, however, from the army and the clergy that protests against the new order of 
things proceeded. These two bodies combined their intrigues in order to exert a pressure 
upon the honest but undecided mind of M. Comonfort, and on the 17th of December, 1857, 
i. e., only sixteen days after having taken his oath, he overthrew the constitution that he 
had just sworn to. He then pronounced in favor of a reactionary plan, drawn up by himself 
and some of his councillors ; and in order not to be opposed in these projects, he arrested M. 
Juarez, president of the supreme court of justice, designated in virtue of Art. 79 of the same 
constitution to supply the place of the coup d' ' itat President until the nomination of his suc- 
cessor. 

Nevertheless, in spite of the avowed assistance, or rather the treason of the chief magis- 
trate of the republic, the triumphant faction had adherents in the cities of Mexico, Quere- 
taro, and Puebla only ; while the entire State of Vera Cruz, Yucatan, Oaxaca, Guerrero, 
Michoacan, San Luis (with the exception of a small portion of the garrison,) Guanajuato, 
Zacatecas , Jalisco, Colima, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tabasco, Chiapas, Chihuahua, 
Sonora, Sinaloa, and a great part even of the district of Mexico, continued to recognize the 
constitution of 1857 as the fundamental law of the republic. 

Nay, more, M. Gutierrez Zamora, governor of the State of Vera Cruz, deceived by a friend 
who had come to him on behalf of M. Comonfort, pronounced, in the first place, in favor of 
the coup d'etat, in the trust that that movement had no other object than that of investing 
the President with powers which would enable him to accomplish, without the intervention 
of a congress, always slow in deciding, the reforms initiated by the last revolution. But 
when he learnt the truth — when he knew that M. Comonfort, instead of advancing, had, on 
the contrary, bound himself hand and foot to the reactionary party by throwing open the 
council to the famous Father Miranda, he felt that he had been trifled with ; and not con- 
tent with repairing his error by returning within the three days which followed his defec- 
tion to the constitution of 1857, he himself assembled the legislature of his State in order to 
submit his conduct to it, and to surrender himself thus to the justice of his fellow-citizens. 
If, therefore, in the events of this period there was a pressure of any kind of the minority 
upon the majority to employ expressions so often repeated recently by the agents of the im- 
perial government, this pressure proceeded solely from the authors of the covp d'itat, all of 
whom are now partisans of the intervention, except MM. Comonfort and Payno ; and but 
for the necessity of giving a liberal coloring to an expedition the real motives of which it 
is not yet dared to state, we should not be able to understand how in so simple a question 
the ministers of the empire have been able to blind themselves so far as constantly to take 
the part for the whole. 

M. Comonfort, nevertheless, soon perceived what a deplorable part he had been made to 
play. But too weak to dare to publicly admit his fault, and surrender himself, like M. 
Gutierrez Zamora, to the justice of the congress, he preferred to shuffle, and continued to 
vacillate from side to side, hoping, doubtless, in time, to oppose the credit of the president 
of the supreme court, then a prisoner, to the annoying influence of the leader of the pro- 
nonces, and the ambition of the general of the counter-revolutionary army to the well-known 
patriotism of the provisional president appointed by Art 79 of the constitution. With this 
object he arrested General Zuloaga ; but this time also his bwlf-and-half policy failed before 
the pitiless logic of the spirit of the party, and he was compelled, in spite of himself, to 
liberate his two prisoners, M. Juarez and M. Zuloaga. 

The former, restored to liberty on the 11th January, 1858, immediately repaired to 
Guanajuato, to organize there the constitutional government. Zuloaga, glad to be let off 
so easily, shut himself up in the citadel, determined to no longer trust his fortune in the 
hands of M. Comonfort; and the latter, abandoned by everybody, without party or pres- 



206 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

tige, unable to count upon the reactionaries, who despised him after making him their 
accomplice, or upon the liberal party, which he had so disgracefully betrayed only sixteen 
days after taking the oath of the constitution ; — the latter, we repeat, soon felt that his 
time had come, and relinquished de facto the presidency, by signiug on the 15th of January 
the decrees necessitated by the situation as general-in-chief of the troops uuder his orders, 
and no longer as President of the republic. M Comonfort fell, therefore, before the 
abandonment of his own forces, rather than from the efforts of the reactionary party. 

On the morning of the 22d January the national palace of Mexico was vacant. The 
religionnaires occupied it not as a conquered, but as an abandoned post. 

Hence it is untrue that the reactionary party overthrew at Mexico, on the 22d January, 
1858, the government established by the constitution of 1857, for that government had 
been sitting since the 14th of the same month at Guanajuato, and on the 19th M. Juarez 
had publicly taken possession, by issuirjg a manifesto intended to call the attention of the 
country and of the foreign ministers to the situation. 

It is still more opposed to the truth to give to the promoters of the insurrection com- 
menced on the 17th of December, 1857, and terminated on the 22d January, 1858, by the 
momentary triumph of the plan of Tacubaya, at Mexico, the name of de facto government, 
since the legitimate government had never ceased to exist, and there could not be two 
governments in the same countiy, one legitimate and the other illegitimate. 

It is true that a division of the federal army, commanded by M. Comonfort, forgetting 
the fidelity it owed to its flag, rebelled amid the ringing of the bells which pealed forth 
the impious vengeance of the monks and the clergy, and at the same time abjured its flag, 
its oath, and the constitution. How long has the treason of the army implied the fall of 
the government that it had to sustain ? Neither force nor treason avails against the truth, 
and the energy displayed by the people of Mexico for the maintenance of the constitution 
during the three years the civil war lasted alone suffices now to show on which side was 
the right then, and on which the insurrection. 

Let us see, therefore, what, under these circumstances, was the conduct of the European 
ministers accredited to the constitutional government. There were two such ministers at 
that time — viz., M. de Gulnar and Mr. Lettsom ; the former, minister of the imperial 
government, was also charge d'affaires of the governments of Belgium. Spain, and Prussia ; 
the latter was simply charge" d'affaires of the British government. Both were accredited 
to the government of the republic, and not to the individual who might happen to be at 
that moment dwelling in the national palace of Mexico ; and, moreover, they perfectly 
well knew all the threads of all the intrigues that were crossing each other between the 
citadel and the palace, and from the palace to the convent of St. Domingo, the seat of the 
insurrection. They knew well how their conduct at such a moment might assist in 
consolidating or weakening the legitimate government. Honor, then, made it their duty 
to risk no step prejudicial to the authority of the government to which they were accredited. 
Unfortunately it was not so. Whether from party connexion, or from personal regard for 
the author of the coup d'etat, or from some other motive of which I am ignorant, they 
recognized, on the 23d January, the insurrection, which in the capital was triumphant 
over the right, and it was their recognition, equally mysterous and inopportune, that, by 
lending a semblance of validity to what must otherwise have proved an abortion, became 
the sole cause of the events which afterwards brought about the convention of October 31, 
1861. 

The recognition of the reactionary insurrection — 17th December, 1S57, 21st January, 
1858 — by the European representatives, at a time when they had in their hands the mani- 
festo published four days before by M. Juarez, at Guanajuato, was a grave fault, as lower- 
ing the government to which they were accredited ; and it was, moreover, an absurdity. 
A grave fault, because the representatives of foreign states should never, under any 
circumstances, be mixed up with conspiracies against the government which has received 
them within its territory. An absurdity, because such recognition, once admitted as a 
doctrine, and pushed to its extreme consequences, would oblige them to recognize in the 
quality of a government de facto, the first -indit who should escape from prison and prove 
ioitunate or audacious enough to seize by a coup de main the seat of the government. Now 
I repeat, such a doctrine is absurd, aud, therefore, beyond discussion. 

If it be true, as I have myself heard M. de Morineau, consul of the imperial government 
at Mexico, declare, that the instructions of the European representatives accredited to the 
republic enjoined them at that time t > recognize in the quality of government de facto the 
first conspirator who might succeed in seizing the capital, those instructions, let me be 
allowed to say, would have been an absurdity, which, cut of respect to the government in 
question, I shall pass by without further notice. 

In truth, the presence of representatives of European states in a country like Mexico is 
simply an act of policy necessitated by the interests of the European residents. The 
recognition which these ministers may think proper to bestow upon any government for 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 207 

the time being cannot of itself confer any right upon that government. Consequently, 
their recognition, however desirable it may be with respect to the daily relations of the 
European residents with that government, cannot convert the wrongful into the rightful 
possession, or set up a right where it does not exist. Thus in the case which I am discus- 
sing, after as before January 22, 1858, the constitutional government remained the true 
legal government of Mexico. That government, legitimate as long as it remained within 
the limits prescribed by the constitution from which it emanated, became the government 
de facto on the day when, in order to meet the exigencies of the situation, it found itself 
constrained to transgress those limits. 

But whether a legitimate or de facto government, it alone had authority to represent 
Mexico in the eyes of the foreigner ; it alone had the right to exercise sovereignty in the 
name of the country, and consequently to conclude contracts and treaties subject to the 
condition of submitting them afterwards to the sovereign sanction of the congress. 

If, therefore, now that the French army is master of Mexico, the imperial government 
demands from that unhappy country the recognition of certain contracts — that of M. Jecker 
for instance, or any other of the same kind — it can only do so in the name of force, the 
last argument which those who have no other to offer are accustomed to invoke. 

These facts clearly show that the Mexican government emanating from the constitution 
of 1857 never ceased to exist, and that the European ministers accredited to it committed 
a great fault in recognizing, on the 23d of January, 1858, the triumphant insurrection in 
the capital ; especially as they were iuformed of the presence of the legitimate govern- 
ment at Guanajuato, and as they had received the manifesto published on the 19th, that 
is, four days before by the ad interim President, M. Benitio Juarez. 

It would be easy to show that, as far as concerns the conduct of the ministers of Great 
Britain and France, this unusual recognition was in direct opposition to the diplomatic 
traditions of their countries, and was condemned beforehand by the approbation given on 
both sides of the channel to the policy followed under similar circumstances by the 
ministers of those two powers at Lisbon, under the reigns of George IV, Charles X, and 
Louis Philippe. 

It remains for me to state how this reaction gave way, which appeared for a while so 
persistent, and under the pressure of what circumstances the convention of the 31st 
October, 1861, was produced. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



[From the Daily News, January i, 1864. 
No. II. — The Reactionary Administration. 

The coup d'Stat had become an established fact in Mexican history. True, the legal posi- 
tion of the country produced by the constitution of the 12th of February, 1857, remained 
the same, but the reactionists lorced their, yoke by arms upon the unfortunate people who 
submitted to it, and their action was all the more to be feared because they thoroughly 
understood the necessity of utilizing by all possible means the time they still had before 
them. 

In the first place came two decrees of the 28th of January, 1858, the former of which had 
no other object than that of abolishing in the localities subjected to the coup d'etat the dis- 
positions of the law of the 25th of June, 1856, respecting the alienation of the ecclesiastical 
property, and the latter that of re-establishing the ecclesiastical and military jurisdictions 
(fueros) wherever they had prevailed before the 1st of January, 1853. 

M. de Gabriac, the minister of the Imperial French government, forgetting that the 
diplomatic agents accredited at foreign courts are not considered privileged conspirators, 
and consequently should scrupulously abstain from fomenting and favoring conspiracies and 
plots against the governments which receive them, did not hesitate, in a letter of the 27th 
of February, 1858, which he probably did not intend for the honors of publication, to 
congratulate himself upon the part he had taken in the perpetration of this outrage against 
the sovereignty of the people of Mexico, by recalling to the archbishop of Mexico, D. 
Lazaro de la Garza, the trifling services (debiles servicios) which he had rendered to his 
country and to the holy churches of that ecclesiastical province. 

We knew that France spent enormous sums in maintaining representatives at certain 
foreign courts for the purpose of sustaining the rights of her subjects there, and of protect- 
ing them when necessary against the despotism of the local authorities ; but we were not 
previously aware that M. de Gabriac had been specially charged to protect and defend 
in Mexico, against the ideas of our own time, the interests of what he calls the "holy 
churches of that ecclesiastical province," and it is right to announce the fact to the impe- 



208 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

rial government and the people, in order that they may both know in what manner their 
official representative in Mexico understood the obligations of his post, and what reasons 
constantly prevented him from giving effect, as he ought to have done, to the legitimate 
complaints of his fellow-countrymen against the abuse of power of the reactionary adminis- 
tration. 

Those, in fact, who pronounced so boldly on the night of the 16th to the 17th of Decem- 
ber, 1857, against the constitution of their country, had counted upon the venality of part 
of the constituted authorities and the apathy of others, in order to seize suddenly upon a 
position which the undecided character of the chief magistrate of the republic rendered on 
all sides vulnerable. 

In this plan, which had long been matured among the leaders of the conservative party, 
treason formed one of the principal means of action, and nothing was more natural than 
this hope in a country where men's consciences, governed by the priests, were accustomed 
to put themselves up to public auction. The clergy opened their coffers, in which they 
had accumulated the millions extorted from the fears of dying men ; and, as Captain 
William C. Aldham, royal navy, indicates, in a note dated off Vera Cruz, the 20th of March, 
1860, the property of the poor thus became the principal resource of a fratricidal war, 
undertaken for the purpose of maintaining in the republic the fatal preponderance of the 
army and the priests. 

Nevertheless, neither the means of the clergy nor the resources they disposed of were 
equal to the task they had undertaken. Their attempts at seduction failed before the 
inflexible morality of the defenders of the constitution. The States rose with arms in their 
hands at the voice of those defenders to maintain the constitution they had freely accepted 
and sworn to ; the resources became exhausted, and three months had scarcely elapsed 
when the victors were already reduced to expedients. In such a situation people are not 
particular about means. On this occasion the expedient assumed the shape of a decree, 
dated the 15th of May, 1858, with the signature of a certain Felix Zuloaga, formerly a 
croupier in a gambling house, but then president of the reaction by the grace of the coup 
d'etat. By article 1 of this decree "a tax of one per cent." — we are nut inventing, we are 
quoting — "was imposed for once only upon all capital floating or fixed, which was or might 
be employed in any industry whatever ;" but by a prudential reservation, for which 
foreigners especially ought to have been grateful to M. Zuloaga, the decree of which we 
speak only applied to those who possessed, or who were supposed to possess, the means of 
satisfying the exigencies of the reaction. 

This was a good deal, doubtless ; it was even too much ; at any rate, by touching only 
capital of an estimated value of £1,000 sterling and upwards, the administration gave evi- 
dence of a reserve too rare in similar cases not to be publicly recognized. 

The alarm was general. Exclamations simultaneously broke forth on every hand ; from 
high and low ; from the wholesale merchant and the retail dealer ; from the capitalist and 
the borrower ; from the chief city of the republic, and from several towns in the power of 
the reaction, and the excitement increasing each day ; at length on the 22d of the same 
month, that is to say, seven days after the appearance of the decree, it found expression in 
a diplomatic protest signed by Mr. John Forsyth, the minister of the United States. 

Mr. Otway, who had recently arrived to replace Mr. Lettsom, on his part addressed to 
the Tacubaya administration a repiesentation from the English residents against the tax 
in question, accompanied by a note in which he begged the above-named administration to 
"suspend the effects of the tax, as far as English subjects were concerned, until he had 
submitted the case to his government, and received instructions relative to the course he 
was to pursue in this matter." 

Finally, M. de Gabriac himself sent a note on the 29th of the same month to M. L. Q-. 
Cuevas, ° ° '"" the preceding year with levying a tax of one per cent, upon every capital, 
floating or fixed, of an estimated value of £1,000 sterling and upwards. On this occasion M. 
Miramon acted more wisely ; he fastened upon capital of £200 sterling ; he assimilated the 
instruments of labor with productive capital, and struck a blow both at rich and poor, the 
capitalist and the workman, the producer and the consumer. 

However, this was nothing yet. Wants every day increased in consequence of the daily 
waste of the public fortune. Coffers full in the morning were empty at night ; and in 
order to fill them again in this limited administration of the coup d'etat, there was no other 
resource than that of extraordinary imposts. Recourse to them again became necessary, 
and this time household property had its turn. 

By a decree dated the 30th of May, 1859, it was decided that this property should be 
subjected to a tax of 10 per cent., payable by the landlord and tenant, at the rate of 5 per 
cent, for each, and that no one capable of being taxed might be forgotten, care was taken 
to include the under-tenants in the impost. 

All this was but the business of a month ; no less, but certainly no more. By the 1st of 
July the exchequer was as empty as before, and in order to replenish it recourse was bad 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 209 

to a sort of panacea known in the history of that sad period by the name of the Peza law 
of the 19th of July, 1859. The assessment of the taxes was entirely changed, which was 
far from being a crime, but a demand, such as had never been heard of in the worst times, 
was made upon all the rate payers, native and foreign, of a year's taxes in advance, taking 
for basis the regulations newly established by the law of which we are speaking. 

In demanding a yeai's taxes in advance, the administration had officially undertaken to 
satisfy, during this same period of time, all the exigencies of the situation without further 
recourse to the pockets of the rate payers. How this was to be done it alone knew. It is 
certain that if objections had then been made against the framer of the Peza law, they 
would not have failed to reply that their measures were all taken, and that with the sum 
they demanded they would undertake to meet all the eventualities of the future. The 
foreigners, deprived as usual of the protection of their ministers, had to accept the terms 
of this tacit contract, but they could not demand the strict application of it. Without 
respect for engagements which were all the more sacred because it had itself dictated their 
conditions ; without pity for commerce, which it was day by day ruining by its exactions, 
but reckoning, doubtless, upon the forbearance of which MM. Gabriac and Otway had given 
so many proofs, the reactionary administration, at the commencement of the new year, 
published another new financial law ; and this time, that nothiDg might be wanting to 
complete the hateful character of the measure, the statesmen of the reaction did not hesi- 
tate to take the 1st of January, 1860, as the starting point of a tax imposed by a law dated 
the 25th of March of the same year, giving it thus a retroactive effect of three months. 

Let us now recapitulate a little. 

M. Zuloaga, the intimate friend of MM. Gabriac and Otway, had contented himself with 
imposing a tax upon capital of £1,000 sterling and upwards. In February 7, 1859, M. 
Miramon, another and not less intimate friend of those gentlemen, had attacked (and, as 
usual, as an " extraordinary" measure) personal properties of £200 sterling and upwards, 
and had included the liberal and industrial professions in the impost. In May of the same 
year he had imposed 10 per cent, on real property. Then came the "Peza" law. Then, 
when it was found that all the financial measures above-mentioned were insufficient to fill 
the void of this Danaids' sieve, which was called at that time "the public treasury," the 
same Miramon taxed all at once, March 20, 1860 — 

1. Effective capital of £200 sterling and upwards ; 

2. The liberal and industrial professions ; 

3. " Moral capital." 

This last was quite a local discovery ; no European government had heretofore thought 
of availing itself of such a financial resource. It would be difficult to explain technically 
what these Mexican financiers of the reactionary party meant by the two words, " Moral 
capital ;" but according to the common talk on this subject, it appears that the adminis- 
tration comprised under that denomination the wages of workmen and servants, and the 
salaries of employers of all sorts, to whatever class they might belong. By these means 
the exchequer managed to find even the poorest of the European residents in possession 
of a capital of which he had never dreamed. Nor yet was it enough to invent categories 
hitherto unknown of taxable persons ; the greater object was to properly develop the 
resources of the old tax payers. To this end commissions were instituted under the title of 
assessing juntas. All these commissions vied with each other in zeal in screwing up the rate 
of taxation imposed upon foreigners. Thus the amount of taxation paid by them in 1855, 
1856, and 1857 doubled, and in some cases tripled in 1858, under the administration of 
Zuloaga, was in 1859, under that of Miramon, raised fourfold, and sometimes even seven- 
fold in the case of certain Europeans, mostly French, for whom M. de Gabriac could never 
be induced to seek redress. 

A simple enumeration of all the abuses of power of which, during the three years of the 
reactionary government, the foreign merchants established at Mexico were victims, would 
be an endless catalogue, which it would be materially impossible to inflict upon your 
readers. Enough to add, that on reading the note addressed, 29th September, 1861, by 
M. de Saligny to the minister of foreign affairs of the imperial government, I could not but 
wonder whether the writer was really aware of what had taken place before his arrival, 
and it appeared to me a curious study to count up the " extraordinary " taxes levied at that 
time by the friends of M. de Gabriac, by the men whose factitious power French bayonets 
are now restoring. If it were possible to be surprised at anything, I might fairly marvel at 
the mighty wrath of the representative of the Emperor at measures the principle of which 
for my own part I have never refrained from censuring, but which that gentleman's pre- 
decessor found perfectly natural, perfectly legitimate, when the reactionary party decreed 
and profited by them. 

While, however, the financial resources of the reaction were sinking into a bottomless 
pit of deficits, and the complaints of the European residents were lost in the noise of official 
congratulations, a new insurrection, fomented by men in the very bosom of the reactionary 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 14 



210 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

party, disclosed on a sudden the deep dissensions existing among the pretended defenders 
of order. The chiefs of this insurrection were the Generals Manuel Rohles, Pezuela, and 
Michel Maria de Echeagoray. It was called the " Christmas pronunciamiento," because it 
broke out December 23, 1858. The whole meaning of this movement was expressed in 
the third paragraph of the preamble of the decree drawn up on that occasion, stating 
" that it was necessary, in order to obtain the pacification of the republic, to overthrow the 
government of Zuloaga ;" and in the following article of a new programme, " the govern- 
ment established at Mexico, in pursuance of the scheme of Tacubaya, lacks authority." 
In other words, after betraying the constitution of 1857, in company with M. Comonfort, 
on the pretext that that constitution was not in harmony with the wants of the country, a 
few subaltern military chiefs betrayed this time the government they had themselves 
assisted to instal eleven months before, alleging for their justification that that govern- 
ment wanted that physical and moral force which it required to establish peace in the 
republic, and transferred their mercenary swords from M. Zuloaga to M. Robles, just as 
they had transferred them, at the beginning of the troubles, from M. Comonfort to M. 
Zuloaga, and as they were shortly about to transfer them from M. Rohles to M. Miramon. 
It would be far too lengthy and tedious a task to recount how the last-named personage, 
after declining the presidency offered to him by an assembly of reactionary "notables," 
convoked by M. Robles, succeeded in getting himself nominated substitute to General 
Zuloaga, thus restored just a month after his fall. Besides, Miramon, Robles, or Zuloaga, 
it was the reaction still — the same system, and therefore perhaps better in the hands of M. 
Miramon, a more thoroughgoing reactionist than M. Roides. If I dwell on the doings of 
this personage, then, it is not to relate how he put himself at the head of his party, but to 
express my astonishment at his recognition as President of the republic by the then repre- 
sentative of Great Britain, Mr. Otway, who had in three successive notes, dated the pre- 
ceding November 20, December 1, and 4, officially demanded his immediate dismissal, with 
a statement in the official journal of the reasons for cancelling his appointment. But the 
situation was changed since then ; M Miramon was no longer the general whose dismissal 
was peremptorily demanded as a punishment for his illegal proceedings against British 
subjects resident at San Luis ; he was now a sort of sovereign, acting as deputy for another 
sort of sovereign, whom Mr. Lettsom had, perhaps imprudently, recognized, but whom at 
any rate he had recognized ; and Mr. Otway, I must acknowledge, yielded with a very 
good grace. He immediately recognized this coarse and ill-bred soldier ; and the latter, 
now free in his movements, soon started for the first campaign against Vera Cruz 

At the same time M. Degollado, general-in-chief of the constitutional army, at the 
head of from 4,000 to 5,000 men at most, operated a diversion agtinst the city of Mexico, 
for the purpose of preventing the reactionary authorities from despatching re-enforcements 
to the army before Vera Cruz; and he encamped at Tacubaya, a village situated some 
three miles from the capital. 

Great was the alarm among the defenders of this good cause. General Antonio 
Corona, charged with the command in the absence of Miramon, called every defender 
of order he could lay his hands upon to the rescue ; and shortly were seen to enter 
the capital all the "faithful" whoni the reaction could depend upon, from the irregu- 
lars of the Indian Mejia to the bandits of General Marquez. This man arrived 
April 8, 1859. Two days after he sallied out at the head of some 6,000 men and 40 
pieces of artillery to lay siege to the village held by the constitutional army, and was 
repulsed in an assault the same day, and twice again the day following. It was only on 
the third day, at 11 a. m., he succeeded in carrying the intienchments which the consti- 
tutionalists had hastily thrown up. At the same time Miramon arrived, accompanied by 
his aides-de-camp only, having been obliged to raise the siege of Vera Cruz. At noon 
Miramon rode out to the scene of action, and between 2 and 3 pm. effected a junction 
with General Marquez. Now, what passed between these two men, so well calculated to 
understand each other, I cannot say ; all I know is, that having laid waste the village, 
these defenders of "order," still reeking with blood, went together straight to the hos- 
pital, where the wounded of the day before and of the day preceding lay huddled to- 
gether, friends and enemies alike. There were found seven generous and devoted men 
doing their duty as surgeons or physicians at the bedsides of the wounded and the dying. 
Marquez had them seized, and that same evening ruthlessly slaughtered in cold blood, 
together with all the wounded officers whom the fortune of war had delivered into the 
hands of the reactionists that day. This atrocious massacre was executed at night by the 
light of lanterns under the immediate orders of General Marquez and M. Miramon. I 
will not undertake to examine which of these two men was the guiltier, nor whether the 
seven surgeons were comprised in the death warrant addressed April 11, 1859, by Miramon 
to Marquez, nor whether Marquez exceeded his orders in having them shot. These are 
secondary questions, which, in an assize court, might peihaps be worked by a skilful ad- 
vocate into a plea of extenuating circumstances for hi6 criminal clients ; but before the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 211 

indignant conscience of humanity they cannot change the nature of the crime committed 
by the orders of those men. Both Miramon and Marquez, the one equally with the 
other, stand accountable for the blood shed on that horrible night ; the latter for having 
executed the assassinations, the former for having commanded them ; or, if the. surgeons 
were not put to death by his orders, for not having immediately arrested the assassins. 

Let us see what the British government thought of that atrocious butchery. Not only 
did the resident representatives of the European governments take no steps to prevent the 
assassinations I have just described, not only did they make no protest against it, but it 
appears that in their correspondence with their governments they did not even think it 
worth while-io mention the circumstance ; for if the British government was afterwards 
informed of it, it was through a private correspondence ; and because among the victims 
there happened to, be one physician of English extraction, Dr John Seferino Duval. 

But the reactionary administration understood too well how far it had transgressed all 
permissible limits not to hasten to anticipate the just reproaches to which it was liable. 
Accordingly, as early as June 20, it had ordered its agent at London, Mr. Murphy, to put 
into the hands of the British government a formal complaint of the conduct pursued 
during the siege of Mexico by Messrs. G. B. Matthews and Frederick Glennie, the former 
secretary of legation, and the latter consul of the British government at Mexico. Mr. 
Murphy then demanded an interview with Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, the then under 
secretary for foreign affairs, who, so far from listening to the agent's complaints, de- 
clared to him, with all the indignation of a man of honor and feeling, what her Majesty's 
government thought of the assassinations committed at Tacubaya on the night of April 
11. This reply is so honorable to the government of your country that 1 cannot hesitate 
to make it known through an extract from the despatch, marked " Very important," and 
"reserved," addressed by Mr. Th. Murphy, at that time diplomatic representative at the 
British court of the Mexican republic, to his own government . 

Mexican Legation. — No. 16. 
/ 

VERT IMPORTANT — RESERVED. 

Excellency : I have had a conference with Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald on the contents of 
the despatch No. 7, marked "Very confidential," of your excellency, dated the 30th of 
last April, relative to the conduct of Mr. G. B. Matthews, secretary of the British legation 
at Mexico, and to that of the British consul, Mr. Frederick Glennie, during the occupa- 
tion of Tacubaya and the environs of the capital by the forces of M. Santos Dejollado. 

Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald replied to me that it was somewhat out of season on my part to 
be bringing complaints to the government of her Majesty when they had in their hands 
an account written by a merchant in Mexico (whose name he would not give me) concern- 
ing Mr. John Duval, a subject of her Majesty, who, (as it was alleged,) in company with 
several other foreigners and natives of the country, bad been assassinated in the most 
cruel, inhuman, and shameful manner, by order of the authorities of Mexico, solely 
because they had been found attending to the wounded of Tacubaya, according to their 
duty as surgeons. 

Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald added that her Majesty's government had never known 
of an order so barbarous, so unworthy of a people which pretends to pass for civilized — an 
order, in short, which deserved the execration of the whole world. He ended by de- 
claring that the government of her Majesty were resolved to demand a signal reparation, 
and a large indemnity to be paid immediately to the widow of M. Duval, and that failing 
this reparation and indemnity, they were resolved to recognize the constitutional govern- 
ment. * ° * Q 

M. MURPHY. 

His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Relations at Mexico. 

This conversation was, in fact, followed by peremptory orders, for on the 4th August 
following, that is, three or four days after the arrival of the mail bringing that despatch 
from Mr. Murphy, Mr. Otway himself addressed to the reactionary government a note, in 
which he claimed, in behalf of the widow Duval, the indemnity of which Mr. Murphy 
had received warning ; and at length some doubts of the legitimacy of the government 
established by the coup d'dtat began to appear. Unfortunately, the reactionary govern- 
ment continued to elude the demand on more or less plausible pretexts, and it was not 
until 1861, after tire definitive triumph of the liberal party in Mexico, that the affair was 
settled to the satisfaction of Madame Duval and of the British government. 

E. LEFEVRE. 

Erratum.— In letter I, (Daily News, December 30,) for M. de Gulnar, read M. de 
Gabriac. 



212 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

[From the Daily News, January 7, 1864.] 
No. III. — The Jecker Bonds. 

October 29, 1859, the reactionary administration, in pressing want of money, published 
a decree, purporting to create a paper issue of 15,000,000 piastres, or a little more than 
£3,000.000 sterling. 

By this decree the administration suspended the issue to the same amount of bonds 
created by the Peza law, (Art. 2,) and decided that the new bonds should be received in 
the proportion of 20s. per cent, each, in payment of all the taxes or duties which the 
treasury should impose, (Art. 3 ;) that they should bear an annual interest of 6 per cent., 
(Art. 4 ;) that half that interest should be guaranteed, for five years, by the house of J. B 
Jecker, whose signature shall authorize the issue of the bonds, (Art 5 ;) and that the pos- 
sessors of the old bonds should have the faculty to convert them into new bonds, by paying 
into the hands of the above-mentioned Jecker, as the banker who had undertaken the 
operation, a sum of 25 per cent., for the "revalidation" of the bonds of the old internal 
debt, of 27 per cent, for the bonds which have been created by the law of November 30, 
1850, and of 28 per cent, for those which were created by the famous Peza law (Art. 8.) 

The operation was calculated to produce a net profit of 3,750,000 piastres (£750,000.) 
On this amount M. Jecker received : 1. Five per cent, commission on the total issue, or, in 
other words, the twentieth of the total realisable profit of the operation — £150,000 2. 
To payment of five years' interest, (of which he guaranteed one-half conformably wilh the 
terms of Art. 4,) £450,000 ; balance remaining to the government, £150.000 ; total, 
£750,000. Nevertheless, in the course of its execution, this transaction presented itself 
under three distinct and independent aspects. The first is that which it had naturally in 
virtue of the decree of October 29, above mentioned. 

The second is that which it received from a private convention proposed by the house of 
Jecker, on the same day, October 29, 1859, to the reactionary administration, and accepted 
by the latter. 

The third is that which it assumed, from time to time, in consequence of certain pro- 
posals or contracts presented by the above-named house of Jecker, in order to carry out 
the operation advantageously. Between these three aspects of the transaction the difference 
is so great that it would be impossible to explain it without making it demonstrable in 
figures. 

Result of the affair of the Jecker bonds had the operation been carried out in conformity with the terms 
of the decree of October 29, 1859. 

Product of sums expected to accrue to the treasury from the conversion, at an average 
of 25 per cent., of 15,000,000 piastres in bonds, issued in conformity with the decree of 
that day, £750,000. Product of fifteen millions of piastres in Peza bonds, which were 
then worth 5 per cent., and redeemable in proportion as the new bonds should be issued, 
£150,000. Value of the new Jecker stock, which the government was to redeem with the 
20 per cent, on the State revenues, £3,000,000. 

Approximate calculation of the sums that should have accrued from the fifteen half-yearly 
payments (at the least) required for the redemption of the whole amount of the interest 
on the sum of £3,000,000 sterling in bonds, in conformity with Arc. 5 of the decree 
above mentioned. 

First half-yearly payment at 6 — £ — 3 per cent, on 

Second do do 

Third do do 

Fourth do do 

Fifth do do 

Sixth do do 

Seventh do do 

Eighth do do 

Ninth do do 

Tenth do do 

Eleventh do ..do 

Twelfth do do 



3,000,000 


•:;>0,000 


2,800,000 


84, 000 


2,600,000 


78,000 


2,400,000 


72,000 


2,200,000 


66, 000 


2,000,000 


60,000 


1,800,000 


54,000 


1,600,000 


48,000 


1,400,000 


42,000 


1,200,000 


36,000 


1,000,000 


30,000 


S00,000 


24,000 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 213 

Thirteenth half-yearly payment at 6 — \= 3 per cent. on. .. £600, 000 £18, 000 

Fourteenth do do 400,000 12,000 

Fifteenth do -do 200,000 6,000 

Total..... , 720,000 

This sum, added to the £3,000,000 of bonds issued, made a general total of £3,720,000 



From this sum, by deducting the credit from the debit, the following result 

was obtained - £3,720,000 

Deduct 900,000 

Total £2,820,000 



So that if the operation had been cariied out in conformity with the prescriptions of the 
decree to which we referred at the beginning of this article, £900,000 would have cost the 
government the enormous sum of £2,820,000. 

The operation, however, was not carried out on these terms, for at the moment of its 
execution the house of Jecker presented another proposal, which we proceed to analyse as 
follows : 

Result of the affair of the Jecker bonds if the operation had been carried out in conformity with the 

second proposal of that house. 

Credit. Debit. 

Total accruing to the national treasury from the conversion of 

£3,000,000 sterling of bonds issued as above mentioned £750, 000 

Peza bonds, redeemed as above mentioned 150, 000 

£900,000 



Expenses of the operation. 

Commission of 5 percent, to MM. Jecker £150,000 

Deposit of 10 per cent, with MM. Jecker for payment of interest 

guaranteed by same -- -. 300, 000 

Brokerage - 30,000 

Printing bonds - - 2,400 

Total to deduct from amount above mentioned 482, 400 

Difference in favor of the treasury. - £417, 600 

From which must be deducted also the supposed value of the 

Peza bonds 150,000 

Net result of the operation - £267, 600 

But the value of the new stock which it was proposed to redeem was £3, 000, 000 

That of the interest at 3 per cent, which was also to be redeemed in fifteen 

half-yearly payments was - - 720, 000 

Total £3,720,000 

From which if we deduct the net sum accruing to the treasury 267, 600 

The difference against the treasury was -- £3, 452, 400 

So that if the operation had been carried out according to the last proposal of M. Jecker, 
£417, 600, including even the supposed value of the Peza bonds, would have cost the state 
£3,720,000, or, what is the same thing, the public treasury would have received a sum of 
£267,600, on condition of paying interest for it, from eight to ten years at the rate of 
something like 80 per cent, per annum 

Nor is this all. The most singular feature in this operation is that to transform it from 
theory into practice no account was taken either of the decree which had imposed it npon 
the tax-payers, nor of the last proposals presented to the government by the house of 
Jecker itself; but it was realized any how, by means of private contracts presented one by 
one to the sanction of the authorities, for the public took but the smallest part in the 



214 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

conversion, and M. Jecker found himself obliged to complete it himself by altering each 
time, both in its form and in its mode of stating the figures, not only the decree of October 
29, but even the very terms of his own last proposal. 

Thus the first contract proposed by him to the administration bears date October 27, 
1859, two clays anterior to the publication of the decree. 

The second presented by his nephew and partner, M. Jules Borneque, bears date January 
26, 1860. 

The third, presented also by his nephew, is dated March 13 of the same year. 

By virtue of these three private contracts the house of Jecker converted a part of the 
Peza bonds and became master of the new stock in the following proportion: 

It converted, by the first contract, £400,000 ; by the second, £1,200,000 ; by the third, 
£1,248,322 ; total, £2,848,322 ; brokerage paid to M. Clement Caricabure, £30,000 ; con- 
verted by different persons, £121,678 ; total equal to the amount of issue £3,000,000. 

It remains for us to explain how the house of Jecker undertook to convert a certain 
quantity of bonds bearing the signatures of MM. Peza and Zuloaga in exchange for an 
equal quantify of bonds which were issued by the administration of Mi ram on. By means 
of the three contracts above mentioned MM. Jecker & Co. remitted in hard cash a sum of 
£144,604 ; in bonds presented as cash, £49,350 ; in bills on the customs, also presented as 
cash, £20,000 ; in clothing and equipments for the army £73,600 ; total, £287.554. 

It is true we have drawn up this statement on the proposals made by MM. Jecker & Co. 
themselves, and stipulated by the contracts above mentioned ; but at the moment of making 
the remittances to the treasury the negotiators arranged to pass as cash a certain quantity 
of other credits or bonds, so that this new transaction was, in fact, another variation of 
the primitive scheme of the operation. 

The following is the result of the treasury account : MM. Jecker & Co. have remitted in 
cash, £123,785 ; in ordinary bonds at 3 and 5 per cent., £68,400 ; in Peza bonds, £6,000 ; 
M. Jecker bonds, (those of his contract,) £4,950 ; in bills on the customs, £20,000; in 
army clothing, &c, £73,600; in divers credits and payments, £1,350; total, £298,085. 
Difference: treasury account, £298,085; former account, £287,554; difference in favor of 
treasury account, £10,531. 

In the second of these accounts the total sum of the remittances is augmented, as it 
appears, by £10,531, but it is at the same time diminished, so far as the portion which 
MM. Jecker & Co. were to remit in cash, contrary to their proposals, by the sum of £20,818. 
We remark also a difference between the quantity of bonds redeemed by M. Jecker, accord- 
ing to the account presented by him, and that which the registers of the treasury show. 
But the difference is trifling, and scarcely diminishes in any sensible degree the sum in cash 
which M. Jecker received for converting bonds of individual holders. We have mentioned 
it as a term of comparison, and as evidence that this transaction was one of those in which 
the profits are calculated in proportion to the risks. 

We may thus easily understand the difference that exists between the conversion of 
stock as it was proposed by the decree of October 29, 1859, and that which was effected by 
the agency of MM. Jecker, a conversion for which the government received only £123,785 
in specie, and £73,600 in army clothing. But even supposing that all the different fractional 
sums remitted by M Jecker could be treated as cash, it would be not the less clear that for 
£287,554 the government (besides 3 per cent, yearly interest, which was to be redeemable 
in fifteen half-yearly payments, and the total of which amounted to £720,000.) mortgaged 
for ten years more the revenues of the republic by taking the fifth of their effective value 
until the complete redemption of the £300,000 remitted in bonds to M. Jecker. 

In other words, for £287,554, value received in money, in clothes, in bills on the customs, 
and in bonds, the public treasury undertook the reimbursement of a sum of £3,720,000. 

Besides, it will be observed that in these t;ausactions no profit whatever results to the 
government, since M. Jecker, after having reserved out of the £3,000,000, which he had 
received to effect the conversion of the stock — 1, 5 per cent, commission ; 2, 10 per cent., 
to cover the portion of the interest for which he was personally responsible, ought at least 
to have made good to the government, every time that a bond was redeemed, the 10 per 
cent, corresponding to that bond, or, at least, the surplus, whenever a half-yearly pay- 
ment of interest was effected. MM. Jecker, however, in paying that half-yearly interest - 
thai is, ].', percent. — considered themselves discharged from all further obligation, and 
retained, besides, the 8£ per cent, in addition to their commission of 5 per cent. 

In this state of things, although it may be difficult to get at the precise figures, since 
the actual charges on the house of Jecker are not known, we may establish a commercial 
balance-sheet more or less accurate of what that operation must have cost, and we may 
here remind the reader that the expenses of brokerage to M. Caricabure, or of printing the 
bonds, were not borne by MM. Jecker, but by the government 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 215 



APPROXIMATE CALCULATION OF THE COST OF THE AFFAIR OF THE JECKER BONDS. 

Cash paid into treasury, comprising payments for the purchase of a flotilla 123, 785 

Cost sur place of 222,000 piastres in bonds at 3, and at 5 to 6 per cent. 2, 664 

Ditto of 24,750 piastres in Jecker bonds at 30 per cent _ 1,425 

Ditto of 100,000 piastres in bills on customs at 50 per cent 10,000 

Ditto of 368,000 piastres for clothing and equipments „ 73, 600 

Ditto of 14,378,700 piastres in Peza bonds employed in the conversion, at 5 per 

cent . 143,787 

Total 355,321 

Deduct : 

1. Value of 554,127 piastres in bonds, which M. Jecker realized at 30 per 

cent 33,247 

2. Ten per cent, which M. Jecker reserved on 621,300 piastres, in bonds 

converted by the public 12, 426 

45,673 

4ctual disbursements - 309, 648 

This, let me repeat, is only given as an approximate account, and may contain errors. 
But, even if we add or subtract some thousands of pounds sterling from the figures given 
above, it will still remain a fact that the affair was from first to last simply a banking op- 
eration, in which the reactionary government issued £3,000,000 in bonds bearing interest 
at 6 per cent, per annum, and that these bonds, redeemable in ten years, were sold sur place 
at 25 per cent. 

In another letter we propose to consider this great operation from a political point of 
view. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



[From the Daily News, January 13, 1864.] 
°No. IV. — Conclusion of the Jecker Question. 

In our last article we contented ourselves with representing the affair of the Jecker 
bonds from a purely commercial point of view ; but in order to complete it some fresh re- 
flections are required, which appear to us of a very serious nature. 

The French imperial government demanded the execution of this contract through M. 
de Saligny, and that agent introduced the condition into one of the articles of his ultima- 
tum. 

Now, one of two things follows from the explanations we have already given: 

Either that contract was in principle an innovation, and completely independent of the 
decree which authorizes it ; or it was a series of different contracts, which may be classed 
among those called in French jurisprudence controls bilaterauz. 

If it is regarded as a single contract — which is incorrect, not to say absurd — then it was 
violated at every turn by M. Jecker himself. It was modified in a thousand ways. In 
fine, it is connected with a thousand different operations. The imperial government could 
not, therefore, demand from the Mexican government the full and complete execution of 
the decree of the 29th October, 1859, since his client had never executed his part of it. 

If, on the contrary — and the evidence of this fact cannot be disputed by anybody — the 
deed in question is not composed of one but of several contracts concluded by the nephew 
of M. Jecker, rather than by M. Jecker in person, it follows that each of those contracts 
was distinct, and this shows that both M. Jecker and the reactionary government made 
and unmade, according to their interests, the conventions they signed ; that they modified 
them ; that they changed them ; and above all, that they materially altered the disposi- 
tions of the legislation which served as their starting point. It was, therefore, supremely 
UDJust on the part of the imperial commissioner to demand the full and entire execution 
of the clauses which were in favor of M. Jecker, since the latter had modified all those 
which were in favor of the treasury, by paying into it bonds, bills, goods, and drafts upon 
the custom-house, instead of money. 

* See Daily News of December 30, January 4, and January 7. 



216 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

But there is a still more conclusive reason. Ihe contract in question was infringed, 
nay, broken, completely broken, by the Jecker firm itself. 

In fact, about the middle of the month of May, 1860, that firm saw itself under the 
necessity of suspending payment. It cannot be said that this arose from the ill-will of the 
constitutional authorities, for those authorities were only re-established in Mexico on the 
25th of the following December. 

However, in taking this very serious step M. Jecker naturally suspended all his opera- 
tions. 

On the 18th or 19th of the same month he assembled his creditors and made terms with 
them on condition that a conseil d' intervention should be appointed. 

Under these circumstances it became impossible for him to retain the deposit, as he had 
undertaken to do on commencing the refaction, the 10 per cent, corresponding to the in- 
terest of the bonds issued, and which alone amounted to the enormous sum of £300,000. 
The contrary, however, happened, and while M. Jecker presented his 14,000,000 of bonds 
as part of his capital, while he mortgaged them (which he had no right to do, as he had 
not fulfilled the conditions of his contract,) he said nothing, and with good reason, of that 
£300,000 which he ought to have had in his strong box to meet the interests becoming 
due, and to dispose legitimately of this paper which a part of the country was paying for 
then with the sweat of its brow. 

However, there is more yet. Under the circumstances in which M. Jecker concluded 
his famous contract, it was not a loan, pure and simple, undertaken by a banker uncon- 
nected with politics ; it was a real and effective society that the Jecker firm formed with 
a counter-revolutionary party, for the purpose of driving from Vera Cruz the government 
which, in conformity with all the usages of civilized nations, was the only national and 
legitimate government. 

Thus, even before failing, M. Jecker had committed the grave fault of contracting with 
a government which, according to the rules of international law. was incapable of con- 
tracting, and of having by that circumstance mixed himself up in the intestine dissensions 
of the country. 

He ought, therefore, to have known to what he exposed himself in case of reverses ; and 
to completely establish this fresh fact we might, if it were necessary, translate the decree 
rendered at Vera Cruz upon the matter on the 3d of November, 1858 — that is, a year be- 
fore the signing of the contract with which we are occupied. 

It would be seen there, among other things, that every person convicted of having 
afforded aid, directly or indirectly, to the insurgents, by supplying them with money, or 
in any other manner, was, for that alone, to lose the iutegral value of the amounts he had 
given, and to be condemned to pay, moreover, to the treasury, as a fine, double the amount 
of money he had supplied. 

The good faith of M. Jecker might be defended by maintaining that he might or might 
not have known of this decree ; but this objection, which is more special than solid, 
would only serve to establish the insignificant value of his reclamation in the opinion 
even of those who sustain it ; for it is publicly notorious that during the whole period of 
the reactionary administration the decrees rendered at Vera Cruz by the legitimate author- 
ity were disseminated in the capital by the clandestine press ; and it would be insulting to 
the public to try to make it believe that in a matter of this importance M. Jecker alone 
was ignorant of the terms of a decree the rigorous dispositions of which were known to 
every one in Mexico. 

Let us, therefore, turn from these questions, and place ourselves solely upon the ground 
of facts, in order to study the position occupied by the Jecker affair upon the entrance of 
the constitutional forces iuto the capital of the republic. 

The counter-revolutionary authorities had disappeared, carrying away with them the 
hopes of all those who had attached their fortune to them ; and M. Jecker was of this 
number. Ought the legitimate government to have sanctioned its contract with the fallen 
administration? We do not hesitate to reply in the negative ; in the first place, because 
the operations connected with it were directed against itself, and because a government 
could not in any case be compelled to pay for the weapons with which the insurgents had 
made war against it ; secondly, because, in consequence of the financial organization which 
had again been instituted in the country, the assignment of 20 per cent, contained in the 
decree of the 29th of October was legally and de facto completely suspended. 

It only remained for him in reality to conclude an engagement by private arrangement, 
as the government several times proposed, or to apply to the tribunals, and make them 
judges of the transaction. 

But, urged by M de Saligny, M. .biker refused to follow the example given to him by 
several English citizens, Mr. Davidson, for instance, and he addressed himself to the 
French legation, which proposed a settlement, the object of which was to reduce to ten 
millions of piastres (12,000.000) the sum to be paid to M. Jecker. In the event of ao- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 217 

ceptance, this debt was to be paid off by instalments, by means of a sum of 15 per cent, 
levied upon the custom-house revenues. Finally — to omit nothing — this proposition was 
preceded by a note, in which, while recognizing that this affair ivas the only one which could 
occasion serious difficulties between France and Mexico, M. de Saligny proceeded to add men- 
acingly, immediately afterwards, that it would prevent the imperial government from 
giving free course to its friendly intentions towards the republic. 

The following is this note. It is the best reply to the statements made by the late M. 
Billault before the corps legislatif on the 27th of June, 1862, and the 6th of February, 
1863, denying that any pressure was exerted upon the relations of the imperial govern- 
ment with Mexico by this unfortunate affair of the Jecker bonds : 

Legation of France in Mexico, 

Mexico, May 2, 1861. 

Monsieur le Ministre : I have had the honor of frequently conversing during the last 
three months with your excellency upon a question in which the interests and the honor 
of France are seriously involved — I mean the question relating to the Jecker bonds. 

After the conversations exchanged on this subject between your excellency and myself, 
I believe I need not for the moment enter into the details of this matter. It appears to 
me equally superfluous to discuss here an incontestable and undisputed principle which 
prevails in the relations between all civilized nations, and that your excellency yourself 
did not refuse to admit— the principle of the solidarity, in connexion with international 
engagements, of the various governments which succeed each other in a country. This 
principle France, throughout the various phases she has passed through during the last 
fifty years, has always respected— sometimes at the cost of grievous sacrifices which are 
still fresh in all memories. It is her right, therefore, and her duty to demand that it 
shall be respected by other nations ; and, however sincere and ardent may be the kindly 
feeling with which the Emperor is animated towards the Mexican government, he cannot 
recognize in that government the faculty of emancipating itself from that principle, and 
of creating for its own advantage a new international law in formal opposition with that 
which has hitherto served as the rule of all international relations. 

As I had given you to expect, therefore, not leaving you ignorant of the matter, I have 
received, first by the Tennessee, twelve days ago, and since, by the last English packet, 
precise and peremptory orders from my government upon this question. 

I had hoped that, informed by you of the necessity and danger of the situation, as well 
as of the incontestable obligations imposed upon it, the government of his excellency the 
President would have hastened to settle this affair, the only one which can occasion grave 
difficulties between the two countries, and prevent France from giving free course to her 
friendly intentions towards Mexico. My hope, unfortunately, has been deceived. I cannot 
take upon myself to delay any longer the execution of the orders of the Emperor's govern- 
ment. Nevertheless, before notifying them to you in an official manner, I have felt bound 
to give you a fresh proof of the conciliatory spirit with which I am personally animated ; 
and, guided by a sentiment that you will, I hope, appreciate, I beg of you to let me know 
with the shortest delay the definitive intentions of your government. 
I am, &c, 

A. DE SALIGNY. 

His Excellency M. Francisco Zarco, 

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. 

In this note M. de Saligny openly asserted, as it will be seen, a principle which no one 
thought of denying — the solidarity, in connexion with international engagements, of the 
various governments which succeed each other in the same country. But he refrained, and 
with good reason, from showing how the interests and the honor of France were so seriously 
implicated in the acceptance of the Jecker bonds, or the titles upon which, according to 
him, the legitimacy of the reactionary government was based. Yet it was worth the 
trouble 

During three years there were, in effect, two different governments in Mexico . One of these 
constituted powers was established at Vera Cruz, the other at Mexico. Which was to be 
considered as the legitimate government and which as the intruder ? 

M. Jecker, it is true, had concluded different contracts with one of these two governments ; 
but in proceeding thus he had acted as a banker, not as a Frenchman, for he was then a 
Swiss citizen, and, try as we may, we cannot understand how the non-execution of a con- 
tract between a Swiss and the more or less legitimate government of Mexico could affect the 
honor and the interests of France. 

M. de Gabriac, then minister of the imperial government in Mexico, had recognized, it 
is true, the government established in that city ; but was this reci gnition a sufficient reason 
why his successor, M. de Saligny, in an affair concerning a Swiss citizen, and not a French 



218 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

subject, should claim, in favor of transactions between that government and that Swiss 
citizen, "the solidarity of international engagements?" 

Surely there were two previous questions to be decided : 1. How came this Swiss citizen 
to claim a right to the protection of France ? 2. Had the reactionary government become 
the legitimate government of the republic ? For if M. Jecker, by reason of his nationality, 
had never had any right to the protection of France, if it had been decided, after a fair 
and careful deliberation, that the reactionary government was an usurpation, it is clear 
that neither the one nor the other could have claimed any right — the former to demand 
of France a guarantee for his jobbing speculations, the latter to make the country respon- 
sible for its acts ; and in neither case could M. de Saligny be justified in quoting, in favor 
of the acts of h\s protege, that principle of the solidarity of international engagements, or, in 
other words, the common and equal responsibility of successive governments, upon which 
he insisted, in order to exercise a pressure upon the legitimate government. 

Now, it results from a note of M. Arnold Sutter, consul general oi the Swiss confederation 
in Mexico, that the citizens of that nation have never been under the protection of any 
foreign power, and that in extraordinary emergencies only their consuls general are au- 
thorized to claim the protection, not of the minister of the Emperor of the French, but of 
the envoy of the United States of America. 

The following is the note written after the departure of M. de Saligny from Mexico, and 
addressed to the government of the republic, in consequence of the Prussian minister, M. de 
Wagner, having interfered in the affairs of a Swiss citizen, M. Santiago Kern, proprietor of 
a mill situate nesr the city of Mexico : 

Consulate General of Switzerland in Mexico, 

February 8, 1862. 

The undersigned, consul general of the Swiss confederation, has the honor to acknowledge 
the receipt of the note addressed to him by his excellency the minister for foreign affairs, 
under date the 7th instant, asking whether he is still in the exercise of his consular func- 
tions, the attention of the government having been drawn to the fact that the legation 
of France, and subsequently that of his Majesty the King of Prussia, have taken part in 
questions touching the interests of Swiss citizens. 

The undersigned has the honor to reply to his excellency that the instructions he has 
received from his government authorize him in all respects to put himself in communication 
with the government of the Mexican republic, and to receive all the communications which 
the Mexican government may transmit to him. At the same time it is his duty to inform 
his excellency that, in pursuance of a convention agreed to between the government of the 
Swiss confederation and the government of the United States of America, the Swiss consuls 
are authorized to demand, in case of need, the ; rotection of the diplomatic agents of the United States, and 
that the latter are instructed to consider it their duty to protect Siviss citizens as they should 
their own fellow-countrymen. 
The undersigned, &c, 

ARNOLD SUTTER. 

His Excellency the Minister op Foreign Affairs of Mexico 

So that, if M. Jecker had any complaint to make against the government of the Mexican 
republic, it was to the American and not to the French legation that he should have ad- 
dressed it. 

So much for the first point It remains to clear up the second According to the doc- 
trine of international law propounded during Louis Philippe's reign by M. Rossi, at the 
College of France, it is understood "that an insurrection in no respect alters the relations 
between the government of the country in which the insurrection breaks out and foreign 
powers " It is even admitted that the latter ought to abstain rigorously from giving any 
aid, direct or indirect, to the insurgents, because, in acting otherwise, they would be acting 
against the presumption of the national will, which is always in favor of the established 
government, so long as that government exists. 

The whole question, then, is, by what title M. Zuloaga first, and then M. Miramon, could 
have superposed the authority of the reactionary insurgents upon that of the government 
emanating from the constitution of 1857, and thus engage the responsibility of the latter ; 
for it is evident that if the title invoked by M. de Saligny was not in accordance with the 
usages of international law, it was therefore null, and tin- engagements undertaken in the 
name of that pretended government with M. Jecker, or any other prison, would fall under 
the category of those private engagements which are within the jurisdiction of the ordinary 
tribunals The constitutional government, so Ion- as it existed alone, represented the 
nation in the eyes of foreign sovereigns: alone had the right to sign contracts, and, con- 
sequently, to engage the responsibility of the republic. This point is beyond all possibility 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 219 

of dispute. What it was essential to demonstrate was that that government had succumbed 
under the assaults of the reactionary party, and how and when it had succumbed. 

Here the facts speak for themselves irresistibly. At the risk of repeating a part/ of 
what we stated in our first article, we may be permitted to summarize them as follows : 

December 17, 1857, M. Comonfort, President of the Mexican republic, rose in insurrec- 
tion, in company with a certain Zuloago, against the constitution to which sixteen days 
before he had sworn fidelity, and proceeded to arrest M. Juarez, who, as president of the 
supreme court of justice, was designated, according to the terms of article 79 of the con- 
stitution, to replace him in the functions of President till the nomination of his successor. 
January 11 following, perceiving that he was the tool of reactionary parties, he restored 
M. Juarez to liberty. 

From that day forth M. Juarez was the veritable President of the republic, and M. Comon- 
fort was so well convinced of this that, in signing the decrees required by the circumstances, 
he assumed the title of general-in-chief of the division of the army placed under his 
orders. 

January 19, 1858, M. Juarez publicly took possession of the presidency at Guanajuato by 
a manifesto to that effect, and when, on the 22d, the insurgents entered into tbe national 
palace of Mexico, the legitimate government had, in fact, been organized three days before 
in the former city. Since then M. Juarez has not ceased to fulfil his duties towards the 
republic and towards foreign powers in every case ; that is to say, where these powers had 
deigned to address themselves to him ; and unless it is to be presumed that the recognition 
of the coup d'etat by the ministers of England and of France constituted a legitimacy which 
before was wanting to that act of M. de Zuloaga and Miramon, a doctrine which, in M. de 
Saligny's own words, " ivould create in their behalf a new droit de gens in formal opposition to that 
which has hitherto served as a rule for all international relations," we cannot see in virtue of what 
legitimate right or usage the administration of Juarez could be held responsible for the 
acts or contracts of the usurping administration of MM. Zuloaga and Miramon. 

M. Jecker had voluntarily entered into several contracts with persons who had no law- 
ful authority to treat in the name of the republic. This was an affair between his former 
partners and himself. If he had been mistaken in his calculations, it was for him to bear 
the consequences of his mistake, and to consider himself fortunate if the lawful govern- 
ment forbore to inflict upon him the penalties which he had incurred according to the 
terms of article 1 of the decree of November 3, 1858. 

But the Mexican government never placed itself on that absolute ground of strict right. 
M. Zarco always manifested to M. de Saliguy his desire to arrange, in a manner satisfactory 
to the interested parties, the questions pending between France and Mexico ; and while 
taking into account the difficulties which beset the case of M. Jecker, both on account of 
its origin and the exhaustion of the public treasury, he added that as soon as the question 
of principle was settled the details should be speedily arranged to the satisfaction of the 
parties principally concerned. 

If, then, M. Jecker did not come to terms on this question with the Mexican govern- 
ment, it is simply because, as we said above, he refused to do so ; and if he refused, it is 
simply because M. de Saligny constantly opposed any terms of arrangement whatsoever. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



No. V.— Conclusion of the Reactionary Administration. — English Mediation. 

There are cases in which certain governments, without being compelled to admit expli- 
citly that they have been mistaken, may be so favored by the institutions from which they 
spring as to have need of the support of public opinion, and they are enabled then to react 
without danger against their previous decisions. 

The English ministry acted thus in the Mexican question after its charge" d'affaires, Mr. 
Lettsom, and its official representative, Mr. Ottway, had both recognized the reactionary 
administration emanating from the Tacubaya project, and by degrees separated itself from 
that administration to draw nearer to the constitutional government. 

It profited, in the first place, by the horror it felt at the assassinations committed on the 
11th of April, 1859, at the village of Tacubaya, by order of Marquez and Miramon, to 
declare to the minister for foreign affairs of that government of bandits "that it was not 
sure it had done well in giving an uninterrupted preference from the commencement of the 
troubles to the government of which that minister was the organ." — (Note of Mr. Ottway, 
dated August 4, 1859.) Then, too, in reply, on the 16th of December, 1859, to certain 
English merchants, who begged him to declare that the sole de facto government was that 
to which he was accredited, her Britannic Majesty's minister said " it was difficult to say 



220 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

which was the real de facto government in Mexico, for while England and France recognized 
the authority of the President who was in possession of Mexico, the United States, on the 
contrary, recognized that of the President who governed at Tera Cruz." 

This, if we may be allowed so to express ourselves, was the first step in the path of repa- 
ration. Then came the recall of Mr. Ottway, a gentleman so compromised by his weakness 
and partiality towards the reactionaries that he had become an embarrassment. Next 
came a despatch dated the 26th of January, 1860, in which Lord John Russell, minister 
of foreign affairs, recpiested Mr. George B. Matthews, the charge d'affaires, to offer the 
mediation of England to the two belligerent parties, but on condition of " a general am- 
nesty beiDg at once proclaimed, together with civil and religious tolerance." 

This despatch, dated, as we have said, the 26th January, 1860, arrived in Mexico about 
the end of February, and was not known in Mexico until the early part of March, when 
M. Miramon, who left on the Sth of February for the second campaign of Vera Cruz, had 
already arrived under the walls of that place. 

It was then sent to Captain Aldham, commander of the English corvette Valorous, 
anchored at Sacrificios, to be communicated by him to the belligerents, and it received on 
the 2d March a first reply direct from Miramon, in which, without saying anything about 
"religious toleration," he presented, however, as a basis of an armistice, six articles, the 
object of which was to legitimatize the insurrection by compelling the constitutional govern- 
ment to take shelter under its skirts. 

The constitutional government, though placed in a much more favorable position with 
the English government, inasmuch as by the law of 12th July, 1859, seven months before 
the proposition of tolerance, it had abolished religious marriages and substituted for them 
the civil contract, besides proclaiming liberty of worship, considered that it ought to de- 
cline all direct reply, on the ground that the moment was inopportune for answering the 
English proposals, and on both sides preparations were made for the struggle. 

Thereupon Miramon, before opening fire against the place, addressed a last office to M. 
Eamon Iglesias, superior commander of the forces of Vera Cruz, in order to avoid, if possi- 
ble, the effusion of blood. This time MM. Santos Degollado and Jose de Emparander, in 
the name of the constitutional government, and Isidro Diaz and Manuel Eobles Pezuela, 
in that of the coup d'6tat, met in a railway station to discuss the basis of an armistice ; but 
they could not agree upon the first conditions, and war followed, accompanied on the part 
of the reactionaries with such atrocious circumstances that the commander of the Valorous 
considered it his duty to interfere in the name of outraged humanity by declaring to Gen- 
eral Miramon that he might destroy the city, and perhaps even take possesion of its ruins, 
but he would never gain the hearts of those who inhabited it. 

"If your excellency," he said at the end of his communication, "does not judge it 
opportune to terminate an anti-Christian war which nothing justifies, directed solely 
against property and foreign commerce, and which is a cause of ruin to her Majesty's sub- 
jects, in my capacity as commander-in-chief of her Britannic Majesty's naval forces in these 
waters I shall energetically protest against this war, and I announce to you that I shall 
take the first opportunity of making known to my government that your excellency has 
caused the ruin of English subjects and English commerce " 

Miramon, in his reply, did not deny any of the charges contained in the letter of Cap- 
tain Aldham. He contented himself with saddling the horrors committed by a useless 
bombardment upon the necessities of war, and remained profoundly silent respecting the 
accusation of having wickedly directed his shells towards the houses in which peaceful 
citizens resided, nearly all of whom were foreigners, instead of discharging them upon the 
fortified points held by the defenders of Vera Cruz. 

Meanwhile M. Muuoz Ledo addressed an official note to the foreign ministers in Mexico, 
announcing to them the failure of the efforts made at Vera Cruz by the representative of 
the reactionary party in order to bring about a reconciliation. He dwelt especially, with 
the charge d'affaires of the British government, upon the causes of the failure, and induced 
that agent to bring to the knowledge of the London cabinet the motives which, according 
to him, had prevented the question from being settled in a pacific manner, and in con- 
formity with the sense of the instructions transmitted to Mexico by Earl Russell. 

But Mr. Matthews was nut a man to be imposed upon by the insidious language of the 
reactionary diplomacy. He knew as well as M. Munoss Ledo what had passed before Vera 
Cruz, and how Miramon, in distorting the sense of the English proposal, had endeavored 
to make use of that proposal so distorted to impose the law upon his adversaries. He 
replied, therefore, "that he learnt with pleasure that his excellency the President had 
received with attention the proposals ol her Britannic Majesty's government with a view 
to the reconciliation of the belligerent parties upon certain bases specified beforehand, 
because those propositions, according to M. Munoz Ledo, were in harmony with his own 
opinions ; " but he added it was also for this reason that he " could not refrain from ex- 
pressing his sincere regret that the propositions made by his excellency to the constitutional 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 221 

party were not in conformity with those recommended by her Majesty's government, nor 
with the enlightened opinion and the friendly sentiments towards Mexico with which her 
Majesty's secretary of state had been animated in proposing the basis suggested, as the 
best, the surest, and the most prudent means of re-establishing peace in the republic," &c. 

On his side, Captain Aldham pursued at Vera Cruz, with a perseverance certainly worthy 
of better success, the generous idea of a compromise between the two parties, separated 
hencefoith more perhaps by the blood with which the reactionaries had stained their hands 
since their accession to power than by the circumstances which had opened out to them 
the path to it. Difficulties increased his energy. Thus, when he learnt that Miramon, at 
the end of his resources, and unable for want of ammunition to continue longer the bom- 
bardment of the place, was preparing to raise a siege he ought never to have undertaken, 
he thought the occasion more favorable, and on the 28th of March, 1860, addressed to the 
reactionary President a fresh letter, the more prominent passages of which we cannot 
refrain from citing, as they show better than we can the real causes of the present disor- 
ganization of the republic. 

"I think it needless to tell your excellency," he wrote, "that the greatest obstacle to 
the establishment of a liberal and constitutional government arises from the great power 
and wealth of the Mexican church. The bases of the church are good, for they were 
founded by the Saviour of mankind. But your clergy does not follow the path He traced. 
Its eyes are closed because its works are bad, and it takes pleasure in them. It will not 
reform itself, for to do so it must renounce its mundane pleasures. It voluntarily keeps its 
flocks in darkness and ignorance in order that they may be ignorant of its ways. 

" If your excellency continues in the path you have hitherto chosen you will never 
reign in the hearts of your fellow-citizens. A small number of them may join you, but it 
will be from fear, not from affection. 

" Do you claim to be a Christian government ? Why does not your country prosper like 
so many others which have passed through a period of greater calamity than that which 
you are now passing through ? 

" Because they adopted civil and religious liberty, and their actions were in accordance 
with Christianity. 

" You, on the contrary, merely know its name. 

"But the time has arrived when true Christianity ought to prevail; when liberal and 
enlightened principles ought to take the place of darkness and ignorance. 

"Your excellency has the power in your hands. You can become if you please the 
founder of a great work, desired by the immense majority of the people of Mexico. 

" Cast off the fetters that enchain you. Unite cordially and sincerely with those who 
are struggling for liberty of conscience and free institutions. Once united you will be 
strong. Put the church in the place which belongs to it. Assign to it a fitting revenue 
and apply the rest of its property to the development of the national wealth. Compel the 
clergy, in a word, to follow the path traced out for it by its chief. Protect commerce and 
business with foreign powers ; open your ports, reduce the taxes, and your excellency will 
soon see welfare and prosperity spread throughout the country, and your excellency will 
have been the director and the leader of this new state of things." 

Thereupon Miramon, summoned by the persistence of the English commander to declare 
himseif categorically upon the different points contained in the note of Earl Eussell, and 
especially upon religious toleration, again glided away from the responsibility of a direct 
reply by sheltering his disinclination behind the congress of 1857, which, he said, although 
the most liberal of all that had been held, had not dared, nevertheless, to establish this 
toleration. 

This, we admit, was convicting the liberal majority of that assembly of pusillanimity; 
but it will equally be admitted that some days after M. de Gabriac thought proper to take 
the stage in person. It was only when he had ceased to hope that the reactionists would 
take possession of Vera Cruz that he began to speak of mediation. But after their defeat 
he deemed it prudent to offer his services, if only to have the right of protecting the in- 
terests of the defeated party. So he volunteered his services in conjunction with those of 
Mr. Matthews, and on April 12, 1860, he offered the good offices of the imperial legation 
for the conclusion of an armistice, during which they should proceed to elect a national assembly to decide 
the definite form of government for the country. 

The advantage of this new intervention, as it appeared to the reactionary party, was, 
that for the moment at least it put an end to any measure of civil and religious toleration. 
Accordingly M. Munoz Ledo replied to M. de Gabriac, on the 18th of the same month, 
that " the government of his excellency President Miramon regarded as a favor of Provi- 
dence the accord of the two cabinets of London and Paris relative to the salutary, disinter- 
ested, and impartial counsels contained in the note of the minister of the Emperor." We 
see how unsubstantial was this accord. Indeed, the reactionary administration had so little 
faith in it, in spite of the assurance which it affected in its communication to M. de Gabriac, 



222 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

that about the same time M. Munoz Ledo, in reply to a pressing inquiry from Mr. Matthews 
as to the views of the cabinet to which M. Muuoz Ledo belonged upon the pacification of 
the republic as the British cabinet had advised, returned an evasive answer, to the effect 
that a preliminary declaration of civil and religious liberty would be an invasion of the 
sovereign rights reserved to the congress whose convocation was demanded. Notbiug could 
be falser than this reasoning, for a political assembly is no more competent to pronounce 
upon the relative value of this or that form of religious worship than the state to pretend 
to a cognizance of supernatural things ; and this constitutional government, six weeks be- 
fore, on proclaiming liberty of conscience as a natural consequence of the substitution of 
the civil contract of marriage for the purely religious sacrament, had sufficiently attested 
its firm resolve to make Mexico participate in the adoption of the great principles of civil 
and religious liberty proclaimed in France in 1789. For the constitutional government 
the difficulty of acceding purely and simply to the counsels of the British government, and 
signing an armistice of which the first condition should be the recognition of civil and 
religious toleration, did not (as in the case of the reactionists) consist in the adoption of 
that measure, which in fact it had already decreed ; but it proceeded from the very condi- 
tions of its power, conditions which it could not infringe without betraying its duties and 
deluding the hopes ot the country. Therefore it was that, in its reply, dated March 16, 
18G0, and addressed to Captain Aldhatn, R. N., to be by him transmitted to Mr. Matthews, 
and by the latter to the British cabinet, it pointed out the true legitimate origin and quality 
of the constitutional government ; proved by the text of official documents the loyalty 
with which it had hitherto fulfilled the obligations contracted by the republic, even towards 
those powers whose representatives had recognized the counter-revolutionary movement of 
Tacubaya, and meiely given it an importance which it would never otherwise have obtained, 
and concluding by declaring " that admitting that the constitutional President, in order to 
secure at once the advantages of peaceful and tranquil existence, consented to an armistice 
based upon the surrender of civjl and religious liberty as the reactionary administration 
proposed, such an act of guilty complaisance would not briDg the civil war to an end. On 
the contrary, it would result in perverting the civilizing tendencies of the great liberal 
party, and in weakening the elements of order which still existed by casting loose passions 
now under restraint and urging them to a struggle more disastrous and terrible than any 
before known in the country." 

Since then the situation has not changed. The reactionary aspirations of M. de Gabriac 
have undoubtedly triumphed for a while in the capital with the aid of the intervention, 
but the country is up in arms, and every day's experience justifies the previsions of the 
government of M Juarez. 

In order to understand the causes of the rupture of the convention ( f London, we have 
thus endeavored to trace clearly the line of demarcation which, for the last four years at 
least, has separated the liberal policy pursued in Mexico by the British government from 
that of which the imperial government of France has unhappilv made itself the champion. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



No. VI. — Conclusion of the Scandals of the Reactionary Party. — Robbery at the British 

Legation 

While Captain Aldham denounced at Vera Cruz the savage acts of the President of the 
reaction, at Mexico M. de Gabriac at last received orders to return to France. 

That minister communicated the news to the administration by a note, in which he asked 
to be allowed to " frank/' in other words, to send away, without being compelled to pay 
the export duty, a sum of £30,000, forming the greater part of the gains he had realized 
in Mexico during a stay of five years, and he announced his departure for the 8th May, 
1860. 

He left, in fact, on that day, glad no doubt to escape the sight of the fresh scandals which 
were about to arise in the ranks of the pretended defenders of order. 

It is impossible for me to affirm whether he was apprised of what was going t:» happen, 
but if we remember the time he lost in going to Vera Cruz, where ho had, on the 2^th of 
May, a long conference with an ambassador newly arrived from Spain, it will seem very 
difficult for it to have been otherwise. 

However it may have been, the Tacubaya project, restored in January, 1859, under cir- 
cumstances already known to tin- reader, definitely passed from life to death the day succeed- 
ing the departure of M. de Gabriac after a fresh freak, of which M. Miramon was again 
the hero ; and President Zuloaga, prisoner of his substitute, was carried into the interior 
of the country, where his gendarme was called in consequence of the victories of Lonia. 
Alta, and Penuelas, gained over the reactionaries by Generals Uraga and GoDzales Ortega. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 223 

This removal was kidnapping — thorough kidnapping, accompanied by all the aggravated 
circumstances of premeditation, violence, and ambush — and it complicated in such a 
grotesque manner the difficulties of a situation already tolerably involved, that everybody 
regarded it as an omen of the fall, more or less distant but certain, of the reactionary ad- 
ministration. The newsmongers immediately turned it to account in their own manner ; 
and the public, which knew the truth only by the burdens that the clashing of subaltern 
ambitions caused to weigh upon it, was this time made acquainted with the last farce rep- 
resented at the palace, by a documeDt, the object of which was to declare that there was 
no longer a constituted power, and which had all the more effect that it bore the names of 
three members of the diplomatic body. 

The facetious substitute had rushed into the risks of this fresh adventure with all the 
eagerness of an ill-bred school-boy, who considers he has a right to play tricks upon his 
tutor solely because the poor wretch seems ridiculous to him. But sobered by the attitude 
of the diplomatic corps, he reflected upon the influence that this informality might exercise 
upon his own position, and he thought it would be well to obtain the formal recognition at 
least of the power he had just seized upon in so strange a manner. 

With this object he enjoined his factotum, General Antonio Corona, to elicit the ODinion 
(paid for beforehand) of what he called his council of state. When the cards were shuffled 
he placed his abdication in the hands of M. Ignacio Pavon, president of the supreme tri- 
bunal of justice, and pretended to submit his conduct to the control of twenty-six notables 
selected from the very flower of the reactionary party, who had accepted the deplorable 
mission of giving to his usurpation the deceitful gloss of which a few days later the am- 
bassador Pacheco spoke iu a despatch addressed by him on the 15th of June, 18C0, to M. 
Calderon Collantes. 

The farce played out, M. Miguel Arroyo, secretary general of the ministry of foreign 
affairs, one of the notables who had just accorded their satisfecit to M. Miramon, received 
orders to communicate the result to the representatives of the foreign powers ; but he re- 
ceived in exchange from Mr. G. B. Matthews, charge d'affaires of the British government, 
a declaration stating " that he could not recognize by anticipation the administration estab- 
lished in the capital of the republic, under the presidency of the former substitute of M. 
Zuloaga, before receiving express orders from his government." 

Thereupon, M. Lares, who had been promoted within a few days to the functions of 
minister of foreign affairs, intimated to him "that from the moment he refused to recog- 
nize the government of General Miramon before receiving orders from London, the general, 
on his part before occupying himself with the interests of the English residents, would 
wait until he had nothing else to do." 

The question, it will be seen, grew more embittered every day. Nevertheless, Mr. 
Matthews, after observing to M. Lares that his conduct in this matter had been entirely in 
conformity with that of the majority of the corps diplomatique, contented himself by replying 
to him " that he supposed, in expressing itself thus, the government of which General 
Miramon was the head had no intention of evading the responsibility devolving in such 
cases upon every de facto government, but that if it were otherwise he should receive the 
declaration with the utmost surprise, and that he should have the disagreeable duty of 
communicating it to his government." 

M. Lares replied, on the 24th of September, that he could enter into no discussion upon 
the points advanced by Mr. Matthews, except with the minister of her Britannic Majesty, 
after such minister had recognized the government of M. Miramon ; because the Mexican 
government could only treat as a de facto government, and that while it was unrecognized 
by Mr. Matthews it could not employ that title in treating with him. 

Finally Mr. Matthews received the instructions of which he spoke in his note to M. Lares. 
They reached him in the early part of October, and on the 17th he addressed to the men 
who for nearly three years had taken pleasure in violating the most sacred engagements a 
last note, in which he repeated to them, in rather more measured terms, though similar in 
substance, what Captain Aldham in his note of the 28th of the previous March had already 
written to M. Miramon. He concluded by declaring that he had received orders to break of 
his relations ivith the government established at Mtxico, and he retired with his legation to Jalapa, 
a town some ninety miles from Vera Cruz. 

This was precisely what the ministers of the reaction desired, in order to proceed to the 
inauguration of a system entirely their own. To begin with — who would believe it? — the 
first two blows fell upon M. Jecker. 

In the early part of August, 1860, this well-known banker, whose coffers had been so 
often thrown open to the necessities of M. Miramon, was informed that he had to pay into 
the treasury chest the modest sum of £2,000, to be devoted to the relief, in a moment of 
distress, of the unceasing poverty of the authors of the coup d'etat. M. Jecker, to do him 
justice, resisted as well as a banker who had just failed to meet his engagements could 
resist. He discussed, he complained, he protested, and only when he found all his efforts 



224 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

unavailing, concluded that he had better come to terms. So he offered £800 ; hut this 
sum General Corona, commanding in the absence of Miramon, inexorably declined to 
accept, and even carried his forgetfulness of the services M. Jecker had rendered so far as 
to inflict a fine of £600 upon the recalcitraut banker. Then, at length, M. Jecker under- 
stood the men he had to deal with, and sent to say that nothing should extort the sum 
demanded of him. Accordingly, -when the police agent came in the evening -with 
an armed force, he found the house barricaded, and entrance impossible. Next morning 
the doors were opened as usual, and the "defenders of order," armed some 'with pickaxes, 
some with hatchets, rushed in. The doors of the offices were opened in presence of the 
consul of France, whom M. Jecker had sent for, and whose protests were set at naught. 
The gaDg were going to break open the chests and safes, when M. Jecker interfered and 
consented to give up the keys. The safes were opened, and nothing, absolutely nothing, 
found in them. The knowing banker had removed all their contents in the night. 

Then followed the arrest of MM. German Lauda and Sanchez Navarro, and MM. Gorribar 
and Joaquim Rosas, who had one and all forgotten that in the hands of the heroes of 
Tacubaya their property was not quite so safe as in the hands of professed highwaymen 
and housebreakers. 

But what were a few thousand pounds, more or less, to such an administration? A drop 
of water in the ocean. Exactions increased with difficulties, and the rapacity of the soldiery 
with the need of their services, until one fine day nothiDg was left for the defenders of the 
altar and of the ecclesiastical privileges but to fall upon the wealth accumulated in the 
churches by the piety of their fathers. In this instance, it is true, the pillage was sanctioned 
by the Mexican archbishop and the superior clergy. 

It was reasonable enough to suppose that these ecclesiastical treasures Avould stop the 
gap for a time, and give a moment's peace. Not so ; about the middle of September M. 
Miramon called together a new assembly of twenty-six capitalists — just the number of 
"notables" who had been summoned to make him President — and demanded of them, 
according to his invariable custom, revolver in hand, the trifle of £100,000, with which 
he undertook to dispose of General Gonzalez Ortega, who had defeated him forty days 
before near the little town of Silao. 

It was impossible to resist so polite an injunction ; but even this sum did not suffice, so 
the "defenders of order" resolved to seize a sum of £132,000, belonging to English 
bondholders, and which was deposited in the safes of the British legation, doubly protected 
by the place of deposit and by the seals of the legation (bearing the arms of England) 
affixed thereto. 

General Leonardo Marquez (in Mexico commonly called Leopardo, in remembrance of the 
assassinations of Tacubaya--the man whom the imperial government of France has since 
decorated with the cordon of commander of the legion of honor) — was charged with this 
expedition ; and on November 16 the chief of the police, Lagardc, at the head of his men, 
occupied the residence of the legation, on the pretext of searching for a depot of arms 
alleged to be concealed there. 

Next day, the 17th, Marquez addressed to Mr. Whitehead, the agent of the English 
bondholders, the following letter, in which he eudeavored to put a false color on the 
designs of the reactionary government, by representing the object of this robbery as an 
act of caution against the risks which the bondholders' money might be exposed to in the 
event of disturbances : 

NATIONAL ARMY. MEXICAN REPUBLIC. — QUARTERMASTER GENERAL. 

As the public funds deposited in your hands, and destined to the payment of the English 
bondholders, have not yet been paid over, and as under existing circumstances they might 
run great risk in case of disturbance ; and as the danger would become imminent if the 
forces which preserve order in the city should be unprovided for ; and as provision cannot 
be made for them with the resources at present at the disposal of the government, available 
only in periodical payments, his excellency the general-in-chief of these forces, in obedi- 
ence to his duty, and desirous to clear his responsibility, orders you to /.lace the funds diposited 
in your charge at the disposal of the commissariat of the army. It is, of course, understood that no 
more than the sums strictly necessary will bo taken from the coffers, and that for their 
reimbursement the proceeds of the loan subscribed by the venerable clergy and by private 
persons for the payment of the garrison will be available, and that if there should be a 
deficit at the departure of the first conducta, this deficit will be covered by the duties to be 
deducted from the sums exported. 

You will be so good as to deliver 200,000 piastres (£10,000) this very day, to the com- 
missary general, who will deliver you a receipt for th.it amount. 

God and the law. 

Headquarters at Mexico, this 17th November. 1860. 

L. MARQUEZ. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 225 

But it appears that Mr. Whitehead was not of opinion that the interests with which he 
was charged permitted him to obey this peremptory injunction, for the same day Marquez 
addressed to him another and still more peremptory summons. 

These two notes, sent one upon the other, clearly meant that the determination of 
the reactionary government was taken, and that no excuses on Mr. Whitehead's part for 
declining to violate a deposit committed to his care would avail against it. Nevertheless, 
in order to clear his own responsibility in the matter, Mr. Whitehead replied once more by 
the following letter to the terrible quartermaster general : 

Mexico, November 17, I860. 
Excellency: In reply to the official note v/hich I have had the honor to receive to day 
from the hands of the commissary of the army, I deem it my duty to declare to you that 
the money received here on account of the foreign debt contracted at London was deposited 
under the protection of the legation of her Britannic Majesty, in conformity with the 
instructions of the foreign committee, to be forwarded as soon a< circumstances should 
permit ; and that Mr. Mathews, before his departure from Jalapa, placed the seals of the 
legation and his private signature on the door of the apartment in which the funds were^ 
deposited, the keys of which are in his possession. Consequently, notwithstanding the 
urgent circumstances which your excellency justly points out, I cannot dispose of these 
funds without the consent of the representative of the British government, for I have not 
the keys of the apartment in which they are placed, nor can I break the seal of the lega- 
tion. Such is the answer that I had the honor to give to the commissary. I was obliged 
to give him a verbal reply, because time pressed, and I declared to him that I found it 
impossible to remit to him the 200,000 piastres which you demand. I trust that your 
excellency will be convinced that it is not from want of deference towards the govern- 
ment that I have not complied with your order, but simply because I have not the power 
to do so. As regards an observation which your excellency has addressed to me, it may 
not be superfluous to remark that although the funds are not distributed in dividends, 
they have nevertheless been legally delivered, and therefore do, in fact, belong to the 
bondholders. Even were they not deposited at the legation, I should have no right to 
touch them except to see to their being shipped for their destination. In support of this 
assertion, and in case your excellency should not he aware of the text of the law of 
January 23, 1857, 1 take the liberty to send him a copy enclosed herewith, and I have the 
honor to call his attention to the formal wording of the first three articles. 
I have the honor, &c, 

CH. WHITEHEAD, 
Agent of the Bondholders of the Foreign Debt. 
His Excellency the Quartermaster General, Mexico. 

All this was true — physically and materially true. But Mr. Whitehead had to deal with 
men as well aware of the facts as himself — with needy men exasperated by their wants, 
and by the reiterated defeats of their party— with men, in short, who had made up their 
minds to listen to no remonstrances. So Colonel Jauregui, at the head of a party of 
Marquez's men, broke into the house, broke the seal bearing her Majesty's arms upon the 
doors of the apartments, and, in spite of the protest of the Spanish ambassador, M. J. P. 
Pacheco, took away £152,000 sterling of the sum which had been deposited there by the 
agent of the bondholders. The same day M. Pacheco addressed the following note to M. 
Teodosco Lares, minister of foreign affairs in that government of bandits : 

Embassy oe Spain at Mexico, 

November 17, 1860. 

The undersigned, ambassador of her Christian Majesty, regrets to be obliged to address 
his excellency M. Teodosco Lares, minister of foreign affairs, concerning a deplorable 
event that occurred yesterday. 

By order of the quartermaster general of the army, a person whom the undersigned has 
not the honor to know presented himself, accompanied by an armed force, at the residence 
of the British legation, for the purpose of demanding the remittance of a considerable sum 
of money which it appears had been deposited there for the payment of English creditors. 
So far the undersigned had no right to interfere in this matter, the charg6 d'affaires of 
her Britannic Majesty not having recommended to his care the interests or the persons of 
his countrymen. But in proceeding to take possession of the sum in question the Mexican 
police agent must have burst open the door protected by the seals of the legation, and it is 
in consequence of that act that the undersigned deems himself authorized to repeat in the 
present note the protest which he has already made verbally, and to call the particular 
attention of the minister of foreign relations to the case. The undersigned, placed at the 
head of the diplomatic corps, cannot forbear to protest most strongly against an act which 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 15 



226 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

is at once a violation of the immunities which foreign representatives enjoy and of 
international law ; for such it is to break the seals of a legation, to seize property 
intrusted to its protection. Were this principle liable to be disregarded with impunity, 
the relations existiog between different countries would be deprived of all security and 
dignity, and public right would be abandoned to the caprices of arbitrary power and brute 
foice. It is for these reasons that the undersigned deplores an event which he forbears to 
characterize in more energetic terms ; but he feels himself bound to protest ; and in 
addressing this protest to his excellency the minister of foreign relations, in the hope that 
he will take into his serious consideration the gravity of the facts which have occasioned it, 
and of the consequences it may lead to, he begs to state that he shall forward a copy of it 
by the next mail to the government of her Christian Majesty, and make a similar com- 
munication to his colleagues residing in the republic. 

He avails himself, meanwhile, of this opportunity to, &c. 

J. F. PACHECO. 

The Minister of Foreign Relations. 

After the minister of Spain, the minister of Prussia, who happened just then to be away 
at Jalapa, addressed the above named Lares a note on the same subject, warning him that 
the government of Mexico had entered upon a course of action which would render it 
impossible for foreign governments to maintain regular relations with it. The same day 
Mr. Mathews instructed Mr. Whitehead to write, in his name, to M Lares, insisting on the 
restitution, accompanied by a letter of apology, within twenty-four hours, of the sum 
removed by violence from his residence after breaking the seals of the legation ; otherwise 
that he should render M. Miramon, in company with his ministers, Lares, Diaz, Corona, 
and Sagaseta, with General Miramon, and, conjointly, the whole Mexican nation, 
responsible for the attack committed, in his person, against the British nation and govern- 
ment. But as neither the minister of Prussia nor Mr. Mathews had recognized the strange 
authority of M. Miramon, the reactionary administration pretended that its dignity would 
not allow it to reply. 

As to the ambassador of Spain, M. Miramon's administration did not even take the 
trouble to offer any apology for an act without excuse ; it simply sent him a copy of the 
repoit of the burglarious attack upon the British legation, drawn up by a person who had 
been sent to assist at the operation expressly in that capacity ; and without any anxiety 
for the consequences of an act which appeared to it perfectly regular, it calmly awaited the 
effect of this "report" upon the temper of European governments. 

And this was the last act of the administration commonly called that of M. Miramon. 
A month after he was flying ignominiously, and for a second time, before the libera] forces 
commanded by M. Gonzalez Ortega, and was soon obliged to go and beg the protection of 
those very foreigners whom he had victimized and plundered incessantly as long as he was 
in power. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



No. VII. — Expulsion of M. Pacheco— Conduct of M. de Salignt. 

The constitutional army arrived at Mexico without striking a blow. M. Juarez gathered 
the fruit of the battles won by his generals at Loma Alta, Penuelas, Calderon, Silao, aud 
Capulalpam. He entered the capital on the 11th of January, 1861 — three years, day for 
day, after he had left it — and immediately afterwards gave notice to the ambassador of 
Spain, to the Papal Nuncio, and to the ministers of Ecuador and Guatemala, to quit 
without delay the territory of the republic, in consequence of their declared hostility to 
the lawful government and to liberal institutions. This dismissal , necessitated by circum- 
stances aud justified by the conduct of those persons, was besides entirely conformable to 
the admitted doctrine of international law in such a case ; for it is evident that if govern- 
ments m;iy on certain occasions refuse admission into their states to foreign agents simply 
on the ground of suspicion, they have, a fortiori, the right to send them away when their 
conduct has confirmed the suspicion and made it certainty. Yet the Spanish government 
made the dismissal of its ambassador a grievance against the government of the republic. 
Naturally euough, the dismissal of the Papal Nuncio aud of the minister of Ecuador and 
Guatemala was scarcely noticed ; but the expulsion of M. Pacheco was regarded as a more 
serious matter, 'that personage protested, not against the order he had received to quit 
the territory of the republic within the briefest delay necessary to complete his prepara- 
tions for departure, but against a simple breach of etiquette He protested that •• he had 
not come to Mexico as a private individual, but in the capacity of ambassador of the Queen 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 227 

of Spain, as his credentials deposited in the archives of the state attested, and that there- 
fore all communications addressed to him hy the government ought to bear, as a super- 
scription, his ambassadorial title and quality." We should certainly not have mentioned 
so trivial a matter as this, had not M. Pacheco repeated the terms of his protest before the 
senate of his country, and had not that protest foreshadowed a question far more import- 
ant, viz. , that of the sovereignty of the Mexican nation. 

Assuredly, when M. Pacheco was sent to Mexico as ambassador of Spain, he was accred- 
ited to the lawful government of the republic, and not to a faction which, although for a 
moment in possession of the capital, had no lawful authority to represent the country be- 
fore foreign powers. 

It was to the lawful government, sprung from the constitution of 1857, and established 
for the moment at Vera Cruz, that M. Pacheco should have presented his credentials. In- 
stead of this, he preferred to remit them to the chief of an oppressive faction, which for 
three years had covered the country with blood and ruins. In doing so, he voluntarily 
divested himself of his ambassadorial quality, and became the instrument of a party whose 
fortunes he was bound to share. 

But it may be alleged that M. Pacheco had been accredited to the authorities which 
derived their sanction from the Tacubaya arrangement — authorities recognized by M. de 
Gabriac, the then charge" d'affaires of the Spanish government; and theitfoie that these 
authorities represented to the O'Donnell cabinet the sole lawful government of the republic. 
Was, then, the recognition of that factious combination of Tacubaya by M. de Gabriac suf- 
ficient to constitute in its favor a lawful origin ? If so, it follows that the sovereignty of 
any country, of France, or of England, as much as of Mexico, resides in the will of a few 
representatives of foreign states who may according to their caprices (sometimes to their 
interests) transfer that sovereignty to the party they may desire to favor It would be- 
difficult to equal in absurdity a doctrine tending to such a conclusion as this. Common 
sense, not less than right usage, teaches us that before, during, and after the success of the 
clerico-military insurrection of December 17, 1857 — January 11, 1858, the government 
established by the constitution was the sole lawful government of the country, and M. Pa- 
checo, in protesting, by his recognition of a rebellious faction, against that only lawful 
government, deprived himself of the rights and immunities attached to the office conferred 
upon him by his own sovereign, and became a mere private individual in the eyes of the 
lawful government Indeed, this might be said equally of the new minister of France, M. 
Dubois de Saligny, and for the following reasons. For, while M Pacheco was in receipt 
of an order of expirlsion from the constitutional government, in reply to his claims for ser- 
vices rendered to the reactionary party, M. de Saligny, who had arrived at Mexico only on 
the 12th of December, 1860, and whose name was as yet untarnished by those intrigues which.! 
had rendered that of M. Pacheco so unpopular, waited patiently and apart to see what was 
to become of the constitutional government to which he also had been accredited by in- 
structions dated Fontainebleau, June 28, 1860 ; and this silence on his part, under such., 
circumstances, if not an actual declaration of war, was significant enough Instead of act- 
ing upon M. de Gabriac's theory, that any government whatsoever established in the capital 
should be recognized as the lawful government of the state, M. de Saligny remained stealth- 
ily silent and apart ; while the newsmongers attributed his retreat to various causes, some 
pretending that the French minister wanted to be paid for his recognition of the Mexican 
government, some that he was not in reality accredited at all to the government of the 
republic. 

This state of things continued until February, 1861, when M. de Saligny suddenly gave- 
signs of life on the occasion of the visit paid to the establishment of Sisters of Charity by 
the authorities. M. de Saligny claimed to withdraw the establishment of the Sisters from 
the supervision of the local authority altogether, on the pretext that the principal founda- 
tion of the Sisterhood being in France, all these establishments were under the direct pro- 
tection of the imperial government. From this strange doctrine, already adopted, in 1858, 
by M. de Gabriac, and of which, probably, neither M. de Gabriac nor M. de Saligny had 1 
calculated all the consequences, it would follow that any religious congregation allowed to- 
establish itself in any country divests itself, by the mere fact of belonging to one or other 
of the monastic or conventual orders, of its nationality, and adopts that of the founder of' 
the order. Thus the king of Naples, when such a potentate existed, should have been the 
protector of the Benedictines and the Franciscans, simply because, in the sixth century, St. 
Benedict, of Nursia, established the headquarters of the order at Monte Cassino, in, the 
kingdom of Naples, and in 1208 St. Francois d' Assisi founded his order at Portiun^ala, also 
in the Neapolitan territory. Such a pretension could hurdly have been admitted by the 
government in whose name M. de Gabriac and M. de Saligny claimed to impose it upon the 
Mexican government, and unless on the principle of denying to a weak government, be- 
cause it is weak, the sovereignty to which, as an independent power, it is entitled, by what 



228 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

right could the ministers of France claim for France a privilege which the imperial govern- 
ment would never have conceded to the Neapolitan government? 

Nevertheless, in order to put an end to shifts and artifices which only seemed to keep alive 
the resistance of the reactionists by persuading them that the constitutional government 
could never be recognized by M. de Gabriac's successor, the Mexican government desisted 
from the exercise of its undoubted right and surveillance over a religious order of Mexican 
origin, and which had been established with the consent of the Mexican Congress, and pro- 
posed to the French envoy to refer the question to his own government. Thereupon M. 
de Saligny officially recognized, on March 17, 1861, the constitutional government. All 
this time the revolution, which had begun to implant reforms in the institutions of the 
republic, was pursuing its regular course in the midst of difficulties and trials which proved 
more and more the strength it derived from the support of the people who had hitherto 
found no escape fiom the retrograde tendencies of the clergy. In 1858, everybody thought 
it would be impossible for the constituticnal government to make head against that colossal 
power which disposed of the conscience of the country, and relied on the indirect resources 
which it was in a condition to procure from the recognition of the eovp d' hat by the minis- 
ters of France and England. The struggle had been long and terrible ; but it had termi- 
nated in the complete triumph of the constitutional government, and there seemed to be 
at length an opportunity for the latter to cany out the principles of political, social, and 
administrative reform. But the reactionists, beaten on every field of battle, sought to take 
advantage of the difficulties of the great process of reform which three years of fighting 
had interrupted. The reactionary party still in arms met in small bands in parts of the 
country beyond the reach of the rapid or regular action of authority, and these miserable 
gangs of no political color or creed, but whose anti-social purposes were no secret, confided 
in the support of men who in Mexico, as in Europe, arrogate to themselves exclusively senti- 
ments of order and moderation. Nay, more : certain of the diplomatists who had committed 
the error of recognizing the abominable dictatorship of a Zuloaga and a Miramon, forgot 
themselves again so far as to regard with complacency the plots of these malefactors, and 
even received at their legations individuals most deeply compromised in the events of the 
three preceding years. 

Meanwhile the champions of reform relaxed not in their work of social and administrative 
reorganization, in spite of all these obstacles and dangers, while some of the diplomatic rep- 
resentatives of European governments were employed in weakening the authority and as- 
sailing the character of the government, supporting conspiracies, and fomenting discord, 
even in the very congress. The administration, supported by public opinion, pursued the 
bands of malefactors who were ravaging the country, and persevered in vindicating the 
cause of the revolution by undeniable benefits. For, in fact, this revolution was unlike any 
other that had yet occurred in the Mexican republic. It was a revolution that had its 
source in the heart of a nation resolved to submit no longer to the lawless caprices of priv- 
ileged classes, but to secure true order and civilization, by emancipating itself at once from 
the despotism of the sabre and the corrupting influence of the confessional. But in Mexico, 
as elsewhere, a new structure of reform could only be built upon the ruins of past privi- 
leges. 

It was in the face of all these difficulties, inseparable from a reforming government, that 
European diplomacy resolved to exact the rigorous fulfilment of all the obligations con- 
tracted by the government of the republic towards foreign powers ; and, as diplomacy was 
in a hurry to present its ultimatum, it seized the occasion of the law voted on the 17th 
July. And yet the question raised by this law was simple enough. The point was, whether 
it could ever be permitted to a government to proceed in that manner ; and if so, whether 
the Mexican government was at that time in the condition prescribed by public law. 

Now, to understand at a glance the excessive nature of these diplomatic demands, it is 
enough to recall the fact that all writers on international law have admitted, that whenever 
the impossibility of meeting an engagement arises from a change in the situation of the 
debtor, that impossibility changes also the nature of the obligation which he may have 
contracted . 

Thus, according to Grotius and Cocceieus, "The obligation resulting from any convention 
whatsoever ceases at the same time as the impossibility of meeting it ; " and, according to 
Wheatou, "the annulment of a treaty, even after ratification, may be demanded, on the 
ground of the physical and moral impossibility of fulfilling its stipulations, and there is 
physical impossibility in all cases where the contracting party is wanting in the means ne- 
cessary to the making his contract good " According to Martens, " The physical impos- 
sibility of fulfilling a treaty discharges a State from the obligation it has contracted, but 
-without releasing it from the indemnity which must be granted to its creditor, in case that 
impossibility had been provided for by the treaty, or had occurred through the fault of the 
debtor." Finally, to omit many more equally decisive authorities, according to Hoffter, 
" The party who has Subscribed an obligation may refuse to execute it iu cases of impossi- 



* MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 229 

bility, even though relative only, if it arose from the force of circumstances permanently 
beyond his control ; and he would be specially so discharged if the conflict was one between 
his duties as debtor on the one hand and the rights and well-being of the country on the other." 

So much for the law of the case. It remains to be seen whether Mexico was at that time 
in any one of the cases of extremity mentioned by the writers quoted above. What, then, 
were the conventions to which Mexico had subscribed, and under what conditions had they 
been accepted by the government of the republic ? These conventions were two in number. 
They dated from the beginning of the year 1857, and had been subscribed in order to pre- 
vent the bombardment of Vera Cruz — the one in favor of certain French merchants, the 
other of English creditors. 

By the first, the Mexican government had assigned to the payment of the creditors of the 
French debt : 

1. AS A PERMANENT CHARGE. 

25 per cent, on all ships of French owners.. 25 per cent. 

2. AS A TEMPORARY CHARGE. 

8 per cent, to pay the arrears of the said convention.... 8 per cent. 

This 8 per cent, to be raised 2 per cent., under certain circumstances provided 

for by the convention.... .... 2 per cent. 



Total ., 35 per cent. 

By the second, the same government had assigned to the payment of the English debt 
and convention : 

1. By permanent assignment. 

25 per cent, in favor of debt contracted in London 25 per cent. 

16 per cent, in favor of the English convention 16 per cent. 

2. By temporary assignment. 

8 per cent, applicable to payment of arrears 8 per cent. 

To be raised under circumstances provided for, 2 per cent 2 per cent. 

Total _ 51 per cent. 

Moreover, the expenses of management, to the amount of about 30 per cent , were charged 
upon the Mexican government ; so that, on the revenue derived from customs dues on 
French imports, there remained to the Mexican government, after payment of expenses 
and instalments of debts, 35 per cent., and on customs dues on English imports 19 per 
cent. only. Considering that the greater part of the revenues of the country are derived 
from these customs dues, these demands appear to leave something to be desired in the 
way of moderation ; and it cannot be denied that M. Juarez's administration, far more un- 
fortunate than culpable in that respect, was at that time under a stress of circumstances 
which all authorities on international law declare to be tantamount to the impossibility of 
meeting its engagements. 

In pronouncing against these excessive demands, we are far from supposing that the gov- 
ernments of Great Britain and France had for a moment calculated the difficulties which 
might interfere with the execution of the engagements. But the difficulties, whether fore- 
seen or unforeseen, were not the less serious; and the government of the republic could not 
be fairly made liable for the delay in payment which resulted from them. Others may, 
perhaps, charge the Mexican government with having wilfully entered into engagements 
which it knew it could not fulfil. But this objection is far more specious than solid. In 
its struggles against the reactionary parties after the coup d'etat, the constitutional govern- 
ment really represented tbe cause of reform in the administration and in the whole conduct 
of the state. It was not a few isolated individuals that succumbed, but the cause and pros- 
pects of a better government. What signified the momentary suspension of payments, if the 
fall of the only Mexican government that had ever represented a moral principle was in the 
balance ? The important point was to gain time ; and, as there was but one way of fairly 
attaining this desirable result, the government was bound to yield before a display of force 
which left it no other alternative possible than to fall or to submit totign the conventions, 
backed by the guns of the British and French squadrons, and to wait until after a victorious 
entry into the capital of the republic to demand the revision of treaties, the strict execution 
of which was materially impossible. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



230 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 



No. VIII. — The Convention of London. 

The law of July 17, 1861, was, we have shown, in strict accordance with all the prin- 
ciples of right which, according to the testimony of all writers on international law, 
appertain to governments in such a situation of affairs. But when reasons are wanting 
pretexts avail, and those who were intriguing with all their might to bring about an 
intervention were not likely to let slip so rare an opportunity of attaching European powers 
to their cause. 

It was Spain that commenced proceedings. Not, as might be supposed, after all the 
noise about the name of M. Pacheco, to punish the republic for the expulsion of that 
unfortunate ambassador, but to constrain the Mexican government to recognize the treaty 
signed in 1860, at Paris, between M. Mon, ambassador of Spain to the French court, and 
M. Almonte, envoy of the reactionary rebellion. 

Now, to understand the conditions of this treaty it must be observed that the Mexican 
debt is divided into two distinct branches, which should not be confounded with one 
another. There is the internal debt and the external debt ; the one, of course, privileged ; 
the other subject to all the fluctuations of parties, which for the last forty years have 
disputed the government of the republic. The internal debt is composed of all the sums 
due, in any shape, by the Mexican administration to its own citizens, and the government 
has always maintained that nothing could divest it of its quality of a debt essentially 
Mexican. Nor could persons who might happen to become holders of its stock, change on 
any pretext its national character. 

The Spaniards, on the contrary, insisted that the bonds of the foreign debt bought by 
foreigners should partake in the privilege accorded by the law to those same foreigners ; 
so that being masters of a considerable portion of these bonds, which they had bought at 
the lowest prices, they claimed to have them treated as credits of Spanish origin in the 
convention destined to liquidate by instalments the Mexican debt to Spain. Thence arose 
between the two governments a conflict which had terminated in 1857, under M. Comon- 
fort, in a temporary suspension of payment of the Spanish debt. 

But the insurgent reaction, in order to testify gratitude to Spain, whose subjects sympa- 
thized with it on all occasions and on all points, had authorized M. Almonte to comply for 
the while with all the exigencies of the Spanish government ; and M. Mon, on his part, 
in order to respond to such generous conduct, had declared that Spain would henceforward 
desist from availing herself of the terms of that treaty to exact from Mexico concessions 
of the same nature. 

Unfortunately for the importance of that financial masterpiece, the fall of the reactionary 
party drew with it the collapse of the treaty ; and Spain being warned that the constitu- 
tional government could not under any circumstances recognize the acts of the reactionary 
insurgents, had taken advantage of the irritation of the cabinets of London and Paris 
against that law of July 17 to suggest the necessity of a combined military and naval 
demonstration on the coast of Mexico. 

How, then, did it happen that this expedition, which in its inception was purely Spanish, 
became transformed into an expedition exclusively French ? This is a question which can 
only be answered satisfactorily by those who are in the secret of the communications 
exchanged upon that occasion between the governments of France, England, and Spain. 
Indeed, any answer to the point is impossible, unless we take for granted that in the 
preliminary negotiations of the three powers there was neither as to the motives nor as to 
the objects of the expedition any clear and definite understanding. 

We must seek elsewhere an explanation of the Dature and causes of the convention of 
October 31, 1861, and perhaps we cannot do better than refer to the declarations made by 
M. Billault to the corps legislatif. 

On the 27th June, 1861, M. Billault, the minister of state, replying to a speech delivered 
by M. Jules Favre the day before, acknowledged, perhaps somewhat involuntarily, that in 
the defined scheme of the convention there was no question of an expedition into the 
interior of the country, the action of the allied forces being limited to the coasts. In 
making this avowal M. Billault stated only a part of the truth. To have stated the whole 
truth he should have added that the convention of October 3 1 had given the contracting 
parties no such right to undertake an expeditioir into the interior of the country, and that 
if the .imperial government exceeded the terms of the convention, it was because that 
convention was nothing but a pretext to cover the despatch of forces destined to overthrow 
the republican institutions in Mexico, and replace them by an empire organized under the 
presence of French bayonets, and in favor of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, or, 
tailing his acceptance, of some other prince at the Emperor's disposal. This, at least, 
would have been a clear, a frank, and a definite statement of the question ; and since in 
this nineteenth century there is a majority in the French Chambers always ready to support 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 231 

the strong, the corps legislatif would have had the opportunity of pronouncing upon the 
purely material question whether the wrongs suffered by French subjects were proportionate 
to the penalties exacted, or whether the military and naval expedition would not result in 
taxing French commerce for the profit of mostly foreign creditors. But it was not so to be. 
The imperial spokesman preferred to keep silence ; events took their course ; the expedi- 
tion went on: a French army entered the city of Mexico, and "the Empire," which had 
been so resolutely denied on June 27, 1861, in the face of the corps legislatif, was pro- 
claimed at Mexico on July 12, 1863, in the presence of General Forey and M. de Saligny, 
by a meeting of 215 individuals, without any mandate from their fellow citizens, convened 
by traitors, at the point of foreign bayonets, to lend a varnish of legality to measures 
predetermined in Paris several months before the commencement of the intervention, 
among certain paid dignitaries of the French empire, and some famished agents of the old 
reactionary factions in Mexico. 

To appreciate the morality of the operations now going on in that distant country, it 
might be desirable to set out, side by side, the original text of the convention of the three 
powers, and the convention itself; but this instrument is so notorious that we need only 
indicate the changes which were introduced into the original draught of the scheme. That 
scheme defined in the simplest manner the objects of the expedition. It was " to obtain 
from the authorities of Mexico a more efficacious protection of the persons and property of 
foreigners." It appeared, as M. Billault himself acknowledged at the sitting of the corps 
legislatif in June 21, 1861, ''that the high contracting parties engaged beforehand not to 
make use of the forces which they might employ by virtue of the said convention, for 
objects other than those which were specified in the preamble, and specially not to make 
use of them to interfere in the internal affairs of the republic." But the instrument added 
what M. Billault took very good care to suppress — " that, immediately after the occupation 
of Vera Cruz, and of the adjacent ports, the chiefs of the allied forces should address a 
collective note to the authorities established in the republic, in order to bring to their knowledge 
the motives for which the allies had recourse to measures of coercion, and to invite them to 
enter immediately into negotiation." 

It would appear that in presenting this handsome document for Lord Russell's sanction, 
the sole object of the plenipotentiaries of Fiance and Spain was to lull the apprehensions 
of the British cabinet ; but when once the expedition was resolved upon, and before 
signing the definitive convention, they referred it back to Lord Russell, with a hinted 
doubt of the results to which, in that form, it might lead. They declared to the British 
government that they had no intention of compelling the Mexicans to adopt this or that 
form of government ; that, on the contrary, the Mexicans should be left perfectly free in 
that respect ; all the more so that they, the plenipotentiaries, had plausible grounds for 
supposing that the Mexicans would themselves come forward to ask for a moral support 
which could not be refused them. And thus was obtained the suppression of those incon- 
venient paragraphs in the original draught of the convention which, as M. Billault phrased it, 
" might have discouraged the national movement." 

Now, let no one pretend that we are inventing suppositions on behalf of the cause we 
have undertaken to plead. Here is a despatch from the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, 
M. Calderon Collantes, dated Madrid, October 22, 1861, that is, eight days before the con- 
vention at London, to the Spanish ambassadors at the courts of St. James and the 
Tuileries, and in which all our "suppositions" are officially recorded in the order in 
which we have ourselves laid them before our readers 

M. Calderon Collantes, after declaring that the preamble clearly defines the nature of the 
united action of the three powers, continues thus : 

"Article I leaves nothing to be desired by the government of her Majesty. 

"Article II equally merits our approval, and though the dispositions which it contains might 
perhaps be reserved for instructions which will be furnished to the commanders of the united forces," 
he (Mi Calderon Collantes) " believes that it is preferable to define clearly in the conven- 
tion what should be their course from the moment when they present themselves on the 
coast of Mexico, and more particularly after their occupation of Vera Cruz, and of other 
important points on the coast. 

" Article III of the draught convention is entirely conformable to the ideas which the 
Queen's government has constantly manifested. They have always thought that full 
liberty should be left to the Mexicans to constitute their government in the manner most 
agreeable to their interests, to their customs, and to their beliefs But while he has 
always held, and still holds, that the Mexicans should be the sole masters of their destinies, 
he equally believes that it is necessary to take measures to enable them to examine (qu'il est nicessaire de les 
mettre en itat de pouvoir examiner) without passion and without infatuation the situation to 
which their errors have brought them, in order to adopt the most judicious means to 
ameliorate it This result might be obtained by intimating to the Mexican government 
and to the chiefs of the belligerent forces the necessity of suspending hostilities, and con- 



232 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

eluding an armistice long enough to discuss or solve peacefully, if that be possible, their 
domestic differences. Otherwise, indeed, far from the presence of the combined forces 
suspending the struggle and arresting bloodshed, it may happen that the horrors of which 
the republic has so long been the theatre will even increase. Hence it might be impru- 
dent, and perhaps somewhat hazardous, to renounce absolutely and beforehand a course 
of action which might be afterwards necessitated by unforeseen events. 

"Article III would appear equally clear and equally precise, if the government of her 
Britannic Majesty would consent to suppress the last period and to terminate it at the 
word ' preamble.' In this way the object of the convention would not be obscure, and it 
would be determined without limiting their course of action (V action successive) which ulterior circum- 
stances might require. For these reasons her Majesty's government believe that article III 
may be drawn up in the following manner : 

" ' The high contracting parties mutually engage not to divert the forces they are going to 
make use of in virtue of the present convention, to employ them for any purpose what- 
ever differing from that specified in the preamble. 

" 'And as intervention in the internal affairs of the republic is not comprehended in that 
preamble, it is evident that any action executed with that object would be contrary to the 
convention. ' 

"Article IV may be considered similar to the first, &c. But even if that article should 
retain the form given to it in the project, and not stop at the words ' special advantage,' 
which in the opinion of the Queen's government is all it ought to contain, its intentions 
and its desires would be in no way in contradiction. 

"It is unnecessary to state that the Queen's government considers the monarchical 
preferable to any other form of government ; but it will not put forward its opinion upon 
the advantage which would result to the Mexican people if they adopted that form in order 
to constitute themselves definitively. If, however, such were their desire ; if they made 
efforts to realize it ; if they consented to discuss the election of a sovereign, Spain could not 
remain indifferent upon such a grave question, especially if any candidate were offered to 
the Mexicans by one or other of the friendly governments. 

"The 5th ar icle of the project is admirably drawn up, and her Majesty's government 
desires nothing more, &c. 

"S. CALDERON COLLANTES." 

Now, what will the reader thii k of this juggle, by which, while great respect is pro- 
fessed for the sovereignty of Mexico, they are nevertheless tricked under the pretence 
" that it is necessary to place them in a position to examine without passion and without 
delusion the situation into which these errors have led them, in order to adopt the most 
appropriate means of ameliorating it?" and of this, in which we find "that it would be 
imprudent, and perhaps somewhat hazardous, to renounce in an absolute manner and 
beforehand a course which might be necessitated afterwards by unexpected events;" or of 
this appeal, finally, to the minister of foreign affairs of the British government, begging 
him " to permit the suppression of the last period of Article III?" 

Why not under such grave circumstances apply to M. de Thouvenel as well as to Earl 
Russell ? Was it because the consent of the former was assured beforehand, or simply 
because M. Calderon Collantes hoped, with or without reason, to come to an understanding 
with him more easily ? 

These are questions upon which it would be idle now to dwell, and to which we merely 
give a passing allusion. We search in vain through the numberless despatches written on 
this occasion ; iu vain we read and re-read the speeches upon this question delivered to 
this day ; we rind nothing, absolutely nothing, which explains, much less legitimatises, 
this unusual display of force against a country, the greatest crime of which was that of 
not despairing of its regeneration, and that of making a supreme effort without having 
previously filled its coffers with the indispensable sums for satisfying the greed of all those 
who believed themselves interested in opposing it. 

It was in reality merely a question of usury, a question of hard cash, and that is why 
the governments of France and Spain felt from the first that the republic in that country 
must be destroyed, and replaced by a monarchy supported upon foreign bayonets, as this 
was the only means of hiding the immorality of the object by disguising it under a varnish 
of conventional legality. 

Be it so. Let us examine the London treaty from this last point of view, and let us see 
if we shall discover the cause for which the Spanish minister appeared thus to mistrust the 
English government. 

Let us imagine some merchant (the Mexican government) whose affairs, in consequence 
of an important circumstance over which he had no control, (the coup d'etat,) were in a 
desperate position, and whose creditors, (the governments of England, Spain, and France,) 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 233 

instead of coming to a friendly understanding with him, so as to give him time, by means 
of an agreement arranged in common, to re-establish his affairs, and to pay them ultimately 
in full, assembled with a diametrically opposite object, and came pistol in hand to demand 
a payment which their unfortunate creditor, despite his willingness, could not make on the 
instant, and we have, commercially speaking, the exact and precise sense of the London 
convention. 

Despite the changes effected in the original text of the project, the moral value of this 
diplomatic act was contained in this disposition of Article III : " Each of the contracting 
parties will name its general commissioner invested with full powers to conclude the 
arrangements, which the redivision of the sums to be received in Mexico will necessitate ;" 
and the first paragraph of Article I, " The three powers undertake to send sufficient forces 
to seize upon the different fortresses and military paints of all the coast of Mexico," was 
only the ostensible means of compelling their insolvent debtor to pay up. 

Do not let us, however, forget The London convention, in giving a positive form to the 
mercantile object of the expedition, took care to declare beforehand that the contracting 
powers prohibited themselves from making it serve as the starting point of the ambition 
of any one of them, from seizing by armed force upon any of the provinces of the country, 
and from using it as a pretext for interfering in the internal dissensions of the republic. 
It stipulated, on the contrary, in the most formal manner, that the signatory powers 
meant solely to demand reparation for the outrages and injuries inflicted upon English, 
Spanish, and French subjects, and not to take part for or against the constitution — for or 
against the government of Mexico. Now, however little one may know of the institutions 
which govern the destinies of England, it is easy to understand that it could not have been 
otherwise. It was, in fact, in order to remain faithful to the principle of non-intervention 
recognized and proclaimed by all the powers of Europe, that England refused, in 1859, to 
mix in the struggle carried on at that period by the Italian people to obtain self-govern- 
ment and insure their independence. It was from respect for the same principle that the 
English government insisted with so much perseverance upon the evacuation of Syria by 
the French troops, and that recently in a question — we mean the American question — 
affecting in the highest degree the prosperity and the tranquillity of England, since the 
occupation and consequently the existence of several millions of English citizens were 
concerned in its continuance, it declared from the beginning of the struggle that it would 
observe the strictest neutrality between north and south. The course of the English 
negotiator was thus completely indicated by the precedents of his country, and despite the 
facility with which he agreed in the interested observations of the plenipotentiaries 
of France and Spain, by consenting to the suppressions above spoken of, it was impossible 
to suppose that Earl Russell would ever let the expedition against Mexico be turned from 
its object, in order to serve as the pedestal for the ambition of his allies, or as a revenge 
for the reactionary parties of the country. 

E. LEFEVRE. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, February 11, 1864. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your separate notes of 
the 26th and 31st ultimo, with their respective enclosures, containing the history 
of political occurrences in Mexico, as illustrated in contemporaneous documents. 
This government cannot he indifferent to the events which are occurring in 
that republic, and I assure you that I appreciate your courtesy in throwing 
additional light upon those events from your own resources. 
I avail, &c, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
SeSor Matias Romero, fyc, Sfc., fyc. 



234 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 2, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : Desirous to communicate to the government of the United 
States all the documents which may cast light upon its opinion on the conduct 
of the Emperor of the French in relation to Mexico, I have the honor to enclose 
with this note, translated into English, an official extract, published in France, 
of the trial to which, by order of the imperial government, the two Mexican 
consuls, Messrs. Montluc and Manegro, were subjected ; the defence made by 
a French advocate in behalf of the former ; and a circular issued because of this 
trial by the department for foreign affairs and administration of the republic. 
These documents of themselves, speak with sufficient clearness in favor of the 
cause of my country. I will allow myself, however, to call your attention 
briefly to the inexcusable facts that the French police assailed the consulate 
general of Mexico in Paris, when the consul was still in the exercise of his 
functions under the guarantees of the law of nations, searched his archives, 
and took possession of various documents, and subjected the consul general 
himself, and the consul residing at Havre, to a criminal trial, infringing on 
treaties in force which ought to have been respected, as was demonstrated by 
the distinguished advocate, M. Hebert, in the defence which I enclose. So 
manifest became the injustice of such proceedings, that the French tribunal, 
notwithstanding the influence of the imperial government, which, it is hidden 
from none, is now omnipotent in that country, absolved the accused of all 
responsibility, although the administration had desired they should pass judg- 
ment on these parties as disturbers of public order, and instigators of hatred 
and disrespect towards the government of the Emperor. 

That unjust treatment of our consuls by the imperial government obliged 
the Mexican government to withdraw their commissions, without leaving any 
functionary of their class in the French territory, in order to avoid what might 
be the object of fresh assaults. At the same time the government of the republic 
withdrew its exequatur from the French consuls resident in the country as a 
necessary consequence of the former measure, and of the facts before referred 
to, as may be noted in the annexed circular from the department for foreign 
relations. I abstain from further commentary, assured, as I am, that the high 
criterion of the government of the United States renders that unnecessary ; the 
reading of the documents I enclose being sufficient, together with the others I 
have communicated to it, and think of sending, for understanding on which side 
justice lies, and which of the two belligerent parties proceeds in open violation 
of the law of nations. 

I avail of this opportunity to reiterate to you, sir, the protestation of my very 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., fyc, Sp. 



JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE MEXICAN CONSULS, JUNE 4, 1S63. 

We give here the account of the proceedings in this case during the three days in which 
it was before the court. 

COURT OF CORRECTION OF PARIS. 

Sixth Chamber. — Session of the 4th of June. — Proceedings and developments within and 
without. — Five accused. — The Mexican consuls. 

Examination of M. Montluc. 

The President. At the time of your first examination you held the position of consul 
general of Mexico in Paris ? 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 235 

M. Montluc. Yes, Mr. President. 

Question You were so in fact since, in 1861, you received your exequatur from the French 
government ; but this exequatur has since been revoked ? 

Answer. That is true ; it has been revoked since May 3 — that is, three days after the first 
return of the judicial writ. 

Question. So you were consul general when the circumstances transpired which now bring 
you before the court ? 

Answer. Yes, sir. 

Question. Have you spent any part of your life in Mexico ? 

Answer. Yes, sir ; from 1831 to 1846 ; and whilst I resided in Mexico I was consul of 
France for eleven years. • 

Question. Was it in 1854 that you came to Paris and established a commercial house? 

Answer. Yes, sir. 

Question. When you were appointed consul from Mexico did you preserve your character 
of a Frenchman ? 

Answer. Yes, Mr. President ; I esteem it too much to renounce it under any consider- 
ation. 

Question. At that period were there already difficulties between the government of Mexico 
and the French government ? 

Answer. Yes, Mr. President, they commenced then. 

Question. Was there in France any general agent from Mexico ? 

Answer. Yes ; Senor Don Juan Antonio de la Fueute, who was the person that brought 
me my appointment as consul general. 

Question. Since the departure of Senor de la Fuente there has been in Fiance no politi- 
cal representative of the Mexican government ; you alone remained as consul general ; you 
had no authority to interfere with political affairs, and yet you have occupied yourself with 
them ? 

Answer. What I have done in political matters I have done openly, publicly, as a good 
Frenchman above all, and likewise as consul general of a country which I saw unjustly 
judged, unjustly threatened. I wrote to M. Billault, minister without portfolio, to inform 
him of the real state of affairs in Mexico. That was on the 10th of May. On the 3d of 
June I sought an audience of the Emperor, and on the 5th of July I sent a note to his 
Majesty On the 7th of the same month I received a letter from his private secretary, in 
which I was told that his Majesty had not time to receive me. On the 15th I received 
from the Mexican government a commission to address a note to the Emperor. 

Question. In your communication you said that it was as a Frenchman that you had 
written to M. Billault ? 

Answer. In all the notes and letters which I have written I have always sigued my name 
as consul general of Mexico. 

Question. No fault is found with you for those acts which concerned public relations ; 
but it is said that apart from those public relations, and independent of the exercise of your 
functions as cousul general, which consisted in watching over the commercial interests of 
the government which intrusted you with such functions, you had political relations with 
the Mexican authorities. 

Answer. That is what I positively deny. In all that I have done then and since I have 
had no other object in view than to make the truth known to both countries, and by such 
a course of action, far from injuring France, I have, on the contrary, thought to do her a 
great service. 

Question. You received news from Mexico, news of ill will and of threatening import to 
France. You are charged with having propagated tbis news by means of those who now 
stand accused with you. 

Answer. I sometimes communicated news to Messrs. Bone and Laverriere, recommending 
to them, indeed, to refute the infamous calumnies spread abroad against the Mexican 
government, but without ever saying anything that might hurt or offend France, always 
respecting the truth, without ever forgetting their character as Frenchmen. 

Question. Did you not write to Senor Doblado, Mexican minister of foreign affairs, that 
the advices which you received from that country were published in the newspapers of 
Mexico ? 

Answer. Only those which I thought useful to publish in the interest of both govern- 
ments. 

Question. Did you not give information to Doblado of the military forces sent by France 
to Mexico? 

Answer. Yes, Mr. President, and that, too, was done in the interest of both governments. 
All that I have done had no other purpose than to enlighten both of them, in order to con- 
duct them to a proper appreciation of the state of affairs, since I have never written either 



236 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

to England, or to Belgium, or to Spain. Far from arousing angry feelings between the two 
powers, I only strove to bring them to an agreement. 

Question. Is it not certain that through you Boue, Petit, and Laverriere have received 
money from the Mexican government ? 

Answer. Yes, Mr. President, in order to write in favor of Mexico, but not against France. 

Question. The nature of your published writings proved that they were directed against 
France. 

Answer. Never, Mr. President. 

Question. Nevertheless, you yourself considered your position so delicate that, in your 
deposition, you have said that two or three times you were on the point of sending in your 
resignation of the position of consul. 

Answer. That is true ; in view of the difficult position in which I found myself I had 
doubts as to the course of conduct which I should pursue. I spoke on the subject to Gen- 
eral Forey, to M. Drouyn de l'Huys, and to some others. What they told me set my mind 
at rest, aud I continued in the exercise of my functions. 

Question. Perhaps you would have done well in resigning. The charges laid against you 
intimate that you did not act bv your own inspiration. In a letter from Del Rio, a member 
of the Mexican union, to Rodriguez, the latter is informed, " Montluc has all my instruc- 
tions. ' ' 

Answer. Senor Del Rio had no instructions to give me. 

'question. I insist not on the character of the writings published ; that is under the con- 
trol of the department of state. You have said in your deposition that you approved 
neither the matter nor the style of those writings. The court will judge. 

Answer. I cannot be responsible for all that Senor Del Rio may have written to me. 

Question. So you deny the principal fact and your complicity with your four companions 
under accusation with you? 

Answer. In what I have done, and I do not see that facts can contradict it, I have had 
no accomplices. As consul general I received a great many persons in my office ; much 
conversation was indulged in ; I had intercourse with Senor Maneyro, consul at Havre, a 
man of the highest respectability ; with Senor Rodriguez, who had been appointed consul 
at Marseilles ; with Sefior Laverriere, a discreet and honorable man. I had no reason to 
conceal my sentiments from them. But as complicity presupposes an evil action delibe- 
rated upon and executed in common, I can in no way consider them as my accomplices. 

Examination of Senor Rodriguez. 

The President. Have you been a correspondent of the Republican Monitor of Mexico, 
edited by Vincent Torres ? 

Senor Rodriguez. Yes, Mr. President. 

Question. Did you send information to him ? 

Answer. Yes, and he sent information to me. 

Question. And did you communicate such information to the public ? 

Answer. By no means to the public ; only to some fellow-countrymen. 

Question. You said in your deposition that you communicated your information to every 
person that spoke to you on the subject. 

Answer. And those persons were my friends or my fellow-countrymen. 

Question. Were you in correspondence with Juarez, the President of the Mexican re- 
public ? 

Answer I wrote him one letter only. 

Question. Were you in correspondence with Doblado, the minister of foreign affairs ; 
with Del Rio, member of the union ; with Ordaz, employed in the department of justice 
in Mexico ; and, in Paris, were you in continual relations with your four co-accused friends, 
Montluc, Boue, Laverriere, and Maneyro? 

Answer. With the three Mexicans I have had only a very slight correspondence. The 
others, those who are called my co-accused, I saw only rarely, aud then merely for reasons 
of friendship. 

Question. In a letter which you wrote to Doblado, did you not place yourself entirely at 
his disposal ? 

Answer He had offered me the consulship at Marseilles On the supposition that I 
accepted that position — that is to say, as consul — I placed myself at his disposal, but only 
as consul. I never understood it, nor seek to have it understood, in any other way. 

Question. You received a sum of 1,500 francs from Ordaz Now, as Ordaz is no more 
than a simple employe in the department of justice in Mexico, did not the Mexican govern- 
ment send you that money ? 

Answer. I have received nothing from Sefior Ordaz ; I did receive a sum of 1,500 francs 
from Senor de la Fuente for former services rendered to the Mexican liberals. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 237 

Question. On the 29th of July, 1861, Del Eio gave you information of a sum of 2,000 
francs, sent to you, and told you to obtain the assistance of Maneyro. In another letter 
appear the names of Boue and Maneyro. In fine, in another letter of Del Rio he tells you 
that he is writing to Montluc, and that he hopes from your patriotism that you will publish 
his manifesto. "They treat us as barbarians," he says to you, "and it is necessary to make 
us really known." And he concludes thus : "I wished to send this to some newspaper, 
but I thought that no one could render us this service better than yourself and Montluc " 
Thus, then, you assumed to yourself the duty of writing articles, and of having an under- 
standing with Montluc, Bou6, and Maneyro, in order to propagate information favorable to 
the Mexican government. 

Answer. Yes, but without prejudicing France. 

Question. Nevertheless, you received instructions, which, indeed, you did not always 
think proper to follow, but which indicate the path you pursued. Thus, on the 26th of 
July, Del Rio wrote to you that Ordaz announced the destruction of the priests. Did you 
follow those instructions ? 

Answer. Partly ; not entirely. 

Question. Did you receive on that same day a letter from the secretary of the Mexican 
minister of foreign affairs ? 

Answer. He replied to a letter of mine, and sent me some Mexican papers. I acknowledge 
all that, but I deny that there is any illegal information in that. 

Question. You propagated the news that the Mexican war was unpopular in France. 

Answer. I have not been alone in asserting that. All that I wished to express was that the 
Emperor had been deceived. Unfortunately, it is certain that the war is not favorably re- 
garded in France ; so I hear it said everywhere, in the streets and in the railroad cars. 
To say so is not to proceed to acts of sedition, nor to make oneself the echo of the public 
voice. Moreover, I have said so only in private conversations. 

Question. Was that letter of yours to Doblado a private conversation ? Remember that 
you have repeated the same sentiments in the newspapers. 

Answer. I have done no more than express opinions with good intentions towards both 
countries. 

Question. It is very difficult not to take you for a most active agent and propagandist 
when Del Rio writes to you : "Do not forget that it may be useful to us to send to Eng- 
land, Belgium, Spain, or Italy what cannot be published in France." 

Answer. I did in fact receive that letter, but I did not follow the instructions which it 
gave me. 

Question. Among the papers received by you there has been found a certain Mexican 
journal which has given information to you and which contains the most violent articles 
against France. 

Answer. In a journal published in French in the city of Mexico ; I have never published 
it ; it was sent to all countries. 

Question. Resuming the consideration of the charges against you, it is said that you have 
kept up relations within and without the country, such as to disturb the public peace, and 
that with this purpose you have come to an understanding with those accused with you. 

Answer. And I deny all that in the most positive manner. 

Examination of Senor Maneyro. 

The President. Are you a Mexican ? 

Senor Maneyro. Yes, Mr. President ; but I have been twenty-eight years in France, as 
consul of Mexico at Havre. 

Question. Was it not in 1836 that you received your exequatur as consul at Havre? 

Answer. Yes, sir. 

Question. Are you yet consul ? 

Answer. Yes, sir. 

Question. Why, then, do you live in Paris ? 

Answer. The business of the consulate is not of frequent occurrence. Several persons of 
my family reside in Havre and apprise me whenever any business occurs that demands my 
presence. 

Question. You are accused, as well as your fellow-prisoners, with 

Answer. I already know what I am accused of, but it is necessary to prove it. My 
fellow-prisoners ! I do not know the meaning of this. M. de Montluc is an old friend of 
mine, one of the most honorable men that I know ; I see him about every fifteen days in 
order to receive news from my country. Sefior Boue" I know no further than by having been 
in relations with him for the purpose of examining the qualifications of a young man who 
had been recommended to me. Senor Rodriguez is a worthy Mexican and a friend of mine. 
As to Senor Laverriere, I do not know him, except in as far as this affair is concerned. 
These are the men who are called my fellow-accused, and this is what I do not understand. 



238 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Question. You are accused of having had publications made for the purpose of disturbing 
tbe public peace. 

Answer. Where are those publications? 

Question. You have said so. 

Answer. Wbere have I said so ? 

Question. Del Rio wrote to you to have an agreement with Rodriguez in orler to make 
some publications, and you answered him that you would do what he indicated. • 

Answer. It is true ; and what does that prove ? 

Question. It proves that you do something more than fulfil the duties of a consul. 

Answer. That is not my conclusion, but a very different one. I received orders from my 
government to give publicity in Fiance to certain official acts. I treated about publishing 
them in France, and I could not succeed in so doing. Then I turned my attention to the 
Independence Beige. I have never been in communication with any newspaper writers of 
Paris. My son, a youth of seventeen years, is the person who writes my correspondence 
and corrects my mistakes in French. I know no newspaper conductors either in Paris or in 
Belgium, and with the exception of the facts which I have just mentioned, I have applied 
neither to the Independence Beige nor to any other periodical, French or foreign. If it be 
sought to prove the contrary, let me be told where are my letters, where is my corre- 
spondence. 

Question. You know that there has been intercepted a letter from Del Rio to you, 
acknowledging the receipt of despatches sent to him by you ; ia these letters, then, are the 
illegal acts complained of. 

Answer. I have said no more than the truth with regard to this wretched war which 
has cost France more men than is imagined, and in defence of Mexico, which is my country, 
where I hold all my property. I believe I have merely used my rights as a private indi- 
vidual and as a consul. 

The imperial advocate, Aubepin, then addressed the court and asked the enforcement of 
the law against all the accused ; he mentioned Messrs. Laverriere and Boue as the persons 
who had played the least important part in the acts that constituted the charge. 

The court, after having heard the defence of Senor Montluc, presented by tbe advocate 
Seuart, adjourned the further hearing of the case to the following day. 

Session of June 5. 

The court of correction, (sixth Chamber,) presided over by M. Rohault de Floury, devoted 
the whole day to the continuation of the argument in the case of the Mexican consuls and 
others accused of evil practices and illegal communications within and without the empire, 
with the purpose of disturbing the public peace, and of bringing hatred and contempt on 
the Emperor's government. 

M. Emanuel Arago presented the defence of M. Boue ; MM. Gambetta, Leblonde, and 
Hebert spoke in defence of Rodriguez, Laverriere, and Maneyro. 

Session of June 6. 
The court pronounced its judgment in the following terms : 

Considering that the five persons accused, who all had relations with Mexico, or with 
Mexican public men, and of them that two were agents and one now is an agent of the 
Mexican government, have maintained to the last moment communications with men 
engaged in the government and with other persons of said country ; that some received 
instructions, others news of which they made use in France and abroad to publish and 
spread the contents of their instructions and periodicals ; 

Consideiing that if the accused knew each other, it is not established that they concerted 
with each other a common purpose ; that it does not appear that their intentions were 
hostile, nor that they sought to bring hatred and contempt on the Emperor's government, 
nor to disturb the public peace ; 

As far as regards Montluc : 

Considering that he was consul general of Mexico in France ; that in that quality he re- 
ceived despatches from his government, wrote letters, and made communications, of which 
copies have been presented in court, and prove bis desire to serve France, by bringing to 
the knowledge of his Majesty, as well as of his ministers, what he believed to be the truth > 

As far as regards Bou6 : 

Considering that in the articles which he published in the French periodicals, he mani- 
fested no feeling hostile to France, and that it does not appear proved against him that be 
visited Montluc, and received foreign periodicals ; 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 239 

As far as regards Rodriguez : 

Considering that, in his quality of Mexican citizen and of attache to the Mexican lega- 
tion, he kept up a continuous correspondence with the public men of his country ; that the 
letters and papers which he received breathed great animosity against the French govern- 
ment ; that he confesses to have permitted various persons to read those documents ; but 
that he pretends to have acted in this way only with the view of making known the public 
characters and the condition of his country from their true staud- point, and that it is not 
proved that he had any other views ; 

As far as regards Laverriere : 

Considering that having spent a long time in Mexico, and having returned in the month 
of June, 1862, his first step was to present himself before the French authorities in order 
to inform them of the documents which he had in his possession ; that he has produced 
before the court copies of the communications written by him ; that this course of conduct 
lasted until the month of April, 1863 ; and that he always professes a desire of making 
the truth known, such as he understood it, to the French government ; 

That what proves the good intentions both of Laverrieie and Montluc is a letter from 
the latter to the former, dated the 10th of December, 1862, and post-marked on the same 
day, in which we read : " Under these circumstances, you and I should publish nothing 
that might bring suspicion upon us; since, if we sincerely desire that the just demands 
of France should be complied with, it is necessary to keep within the limits of truth. Let 
us always labor, then, uprightly and honestly in the consciousness of performing a duty, 
and let us not fear to have a bad interpretation put upon our efforts in favor of an arrange- 
ment that might re-establish peace, so desirable for all ; '' 

That no more than this purpose can be discovered in the articles published by Laverriere 
in France and in his letters ; 

As far as regards Maneyro : 

Considering that as a Mexican, as consul from Mexico in France, he has done no more 
than follow the instructions of his government, and that neither his action in receiving 
papers and the correspondence directed to him, nor any other action on his part, constitutes 
the crime for which he has been brought to trial ; 

For these reasons the court orders the release of Montluc, Boue, Rodriguez, Laverriere, 
and Maneyro, and the restoration to them of the documents seized upon, except the periodi- 
cals fraudulently introduced, which are to be destroyed. 

Defence of the Mexican Consul, Sehor Maneyro, by M. Hebert. 

As soon as the court was opened M. Hebert was permitted to speak, and expressed him- 
self in the iollowiug terms : 

I have the honor of appearing for Senor Maneyro, consul of Mexico at Havre, and I ask, 
as well on account of his official character, as in view that there is no act of his capable of 
sustaining the charges brought against him, that the court be pleased to dismiss the case. 

Gentlemen, in order to defend my client I shall examine three things : his personal po- 
sition, that is to say, the general tenor of his conduct throughout his life ; his legal and 
judicial character before this court, and the nature and character of the acts with which he 
now stands charged. As to the first point, what I have to say of this foreigner, of this 
agent of a foreign government, is so honorable, so satisfactory, that I would wish with all 
my heart, as a good Frenchman, that wherever, in any quarter of the world they exert their 
intelligence and their activity, they could without exception receive and take to themselves 
the same testimony. 

Senor Maneyro is of an excellent family in Mexico On the 3d of July, 1835, he was 
appointed consul of the United States of Mexico at Havre. On the 18th of March, 1836, 
he received his exequatur from the late King Louis Philippe. From that time he has always 
represented, and now actually represents, the Mexican nation in that character. It is un- 
necessary to state that, in the exercise of his functions in one of our great commercial em- 
poriums, which has very frequent relations with Mexico, he has had occasion to watch over 
important, numerous, and various interests ; but what I have to prove is, that he always 
performed his duties, very difficult at times, with zeal, rectitude, and gratifying success. 

It is well known that in those countries in which the republican form of government 
appears to be the most suitable to the customs and character of the inhabitants — in those 
countries which are striving to raise themselves from a chaotic condition to a stable consti- 
tution, and in the attainment of that object have to pass through a period of anarchical 
interregnum — it is known, I say, how frequent have been the changes since 1836 in the 
personal heads of the government. Under all these administrations SeBor Maneyro never 
ceased to be consul at Havre ; he retained his powers and the confidence of his country. 
And in order to serve those different governments, variously and widely divergent in their 



240 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

political character, SeQor Maneyro had but one rule to follow, and that was to remain 
■within the limits of his functions, to obey the orders given to him according to law and by 
law — I mean the law of nations, treaties, the course of legislation of his own country and 
of ours. 

We likewise, since 1836, have had many political changes, which have not only affected 
persons, but have been deep, radical, overthrowing men and institutions in succession. 
Now, then, under all the governments which have succeeded each other in France during 
the last thirty years Sefior Maneyro has always been consul of Mexico — under the govern- 
ment of King Louis Philippe ; under the republic of 1848 ; under General Cavaignac ; 
under the presidency which followed, as now under the empire. 

From all this I seek, merely to deduce two consequences: first, that Sefior Maneyro is not the 
agent of a Mexican party ; that he has not embraced the cause of such and such a faction, 
or the interests of such and such an individual in his country ; that being consular agent 
of Mexico at Havre for thirty years, he has never been nor sought to be anything else ; and, 
secondly, that Sefior Maneyro is likewise no party man in France. A stranger to our country, 
totally indifferent, as he has the right to be, to the various mutations and agitations of 
politics, he never espoused any party among us, or participated either in the fierceness of 
political polemics, foreign to his character, or in the unmeasured laudations, of which he 
knew how to appreciate the dangers and utter insincerity. He lived in peace with all our 
governments and all our administrations ; and when, at a former period, a conflict arose 
between the two countries — a conflict in which France and her government equally showed 
that they were not insensible to the glory of arms — when these last performed their func- 
tions and just reparation was offered, Sefior Maneyro was one of those who merited well of 
both countries by having done all in his power that might contribute to the re-establish- 
ment of peace. 

And, indeed, a course of action like this enters into the scope of consular duties, even 
under the restrictions and limitations imposed upon them by governmental policy. And 
is it not, in fact, a matter of interest to these same consuls that they should identify them- 
selves with the interests of those whom they find themselves specially charged to represent ? 
Is it not clear that it would be an act of folly on the part of those who are invested with 
the confidence of their government to consult in their conduct only their political predi- 
lections or their personal friendships or enmities ? Senor Maneyro knew how to avoid all 
these dangers ; he did at all times whatever he could to maintain friendly relations — all 
that he could do within the limits of his official position. 

This course of conduct gained him universal approval ; I have the best and most honorable 
testimonials of it. I have here that of the municipality of Havre, dated May 25, 1863 : 

"Office of the Mayoralty of Pakis, May 25, 1863. 
"We, the mayor of the city of Havre, officer of the legion of honor, certify, to 
whomsoever it concerns, that Senor Maneyro, consul of Mex co at Havre since 1836, is a 
man of excellent moral character, and that he has known, as well in private life as in the 
exercise of his official functions, how to gain for himself the esteem and consideration of 
all ; that, during the period of his residence in this city, he has never ceased to be received 
with distinction in the most honorable houses ; that, in fine, in a political point of view, 
he has never by word or deed attacked any of the governments that have succeeded each 
other since that epoch. In proof of which we have written these presents and attached to 
them the seal of this city. 

"JUST VIEL." 

To this first testimonial, so honotable to Senor Maneyro, I add another, which is no less 
so, given by all the consuls resident at Havre : 

"Havre, May 25, 1863. 

"The undersigned, consuls of the foreign powers at Havre de Grace, certify that Sefior 
Don Luis Maneyio, consul of Mexico, has constantly enjoyed the general appreciation and 
esteem of all during his stay id this city, as likewise the confidence of all in the relations 
which they have cultivated with him ; and that his political opinions have always appeared 
to them marked with moderation and justice." 

Here follow the seals and signatures of the cousuls of Prussia, Wurtemburg, Hesse, Baden, 
Oldenburg, Hanover, Havana, the Hause Towns, Switzerland, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Nether- 
lands, Portugal, Sweden, and Great Britain. 

* It is to be remarked that though the Austrian consul knew Senor Maneyro in times past, he refused to 
sign the testimonial. Five other consnls, of modem date, could not sign it, but they attested their sympathy 
with Sefior Maneyro. — J\'ute by the Editors. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 241 

With these, and superior to them, I have another testimonial emanating from our own 
government. This testimonial is found in the fact of the retention of Senor Maneyro up 
to this time in his functions as consul at Havre. However, I draw no legal consequence 
from that ; but I have the right morally to say that he has not been considered an upholder 
of disorder, an inventor of conspiracies ; because here we see him consul, here we see him 
a man of moderation, such as he has been throughout his whole life. The indictment 
against him tells us that, since 1861, he has been guilty of evil practices detrimental to 
France and her government. Now, if this is so, how is it that the French government 
has, since 1861, permitted an enemy of France to perform the duties of a public employ- 
ment, when it could have very easily disarmed him, by withdrawing his exequatur, and even 
expelling him as a dangerous foreigner? 

Such is the personal character of Sefior Maneyro. Let us now see what has been his 
conduct since the commencement of the war. Has it changed, perhaps ? Has it belied 
his spotless antecedents? No, gentlemen ; there is not a shadow of guilt upon him. A 
great error was committed in this case when it was sought to explain his coming to Paris, 
his determination of fixing the residence of his family in this city, as an evidence of his 
desire to mingle in intrigues and to aggregate himself with his pretended accomplices. This 
error not having been reproduced by the counsel for the government, I might have been 
content with this silent reparation of it if it had not become a duty for me to explain it all, 
in order to establish in the most incontestable manner the constant rectitude of my client. 

In the month of September, 1858, it was that Senor Maneyro took a residence in Paris, 
long befc*"e the war with Mexico, before it was even thought of, and before any new or 
serious cause of dissension had arisen between the two countries. Sefior Maneyro, then, 
came to Paris in 1858, and rented a residence in the Rue de l'Arcade, in a house of well- 
known character, whose proprietor, were it necessary, would give me most satisfactory cer- 
tificates. That proprietor is M. the Baron de Cormenin ; on the supposition that I refer to 
the one of to-day, [the audience smiles,' 5 ] one of the most faithful servants of the empire, 
and who would riot have given an asylum to a man that came to Paris to intrigue against 
the government. 

Two reasons brought Sehor Maneyro to Paris, both of them serious, both of them satis- 
factory. He came principally for the education of his son, who is pursuing his course of 
studies at the Lyceum Napoleon, and I have here the proof of what I say, [M. Hebert 
turned around, and, smiling, pointed out to the court, with his finger, the son of Senor Ma- 
neyro, a fine youth of seventeen years, who stood up and blushed somewhat on seeing him- 
self the object of the gaze of the spectators.] The second reason for the coming of Sefior 
Maneyro to Paris was the change in the condition of his private fortune. Indeed, even 
before the war, pecuniary difficulties, of frequent occurrence in his country, had occasioned 
the failure of the payment of his salary as consul. I have heard the counsel for the gov- 
ernment censure some of the accused for what he calls salaried services. I have the satis- 
faction of being able to say of Sefior Maneyro that for several years he has served his country, 
and watched over the interests of his countrymen, without receiving anything, without 
asking anything of his salary, without complaint, and without the least diminution of zeal 
or efficiency. 

But if this abnegation is honorable, the consequences which it produces may prove inju- 
rious to other feelings. During a space of twenty-five years Sefior Maneyro kept, in Havre, 
what may be called a good house and respectable social relations. It is hard to descend, 
even with honor. The worth of the sacrifice, the thought of gratuitously serving our coun- 
try, does not prevent the grief of feeling obliged, perhaps, to undergo, if not privations, at 
least necessary changes of life and habits. 

Such, gentlemen, are the two motives which brought Serior Maneyro to Paris ; not to fix 
there his personal residence, but to locate his wife and son modestly and temporarily, and 
likewise to superintend the education of the latter. For the rest, his domicile always remains 
in Havre ; he is consul there all the time, and whenever his business calls him thither he goes 
immediately ; he has his office there, his papers, and his secretary, who performs the part 
of chancellor. 

In view of these explanations, either I deceive myself much, or the accused, whom I 
defend, is now a very different person from what prejudice may have considered him ; he 
now stands absolved from all suspicion of clandestine practices, from a species of treason 
which, I do not deny, would assume the greatest gravity, on account of his character as a 
consul, in the exercise of his functions, because, I repeat it, he is still consul at Havre ; his 
exequatur has not been withdrawn ; it is not two months since he signed manifests and bills 
of health for two vessels bound for the coasts of Mexico in search of a cargo of dyewoods. 

* This is satirical. The late Baron de Cormenin, likewise known by the name of Timon, and who published 
a biography of the orators of France of the time of Louis Philippe, was an ardent liberal ; but his son is, on 
the contrary, devoted to the imperial policy. 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 16 



242 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Now, gentlemen, I must examine the subject in another light. I say that Mr. Maneyro 
is yet consul of the Mexican government at Havre, and I maintain that, in that character, 
he is protected by the law of nations, and clothed with certain immunities, so far that I 
might even question the competency of courts of correction to assume cognizance of his 
case. But this I shall not do ; so great is the confidence which I have in truth, in the 
potency of the justification which I propose to lay before the court, extracted from the 
essence of the case itself, and which I do not desire to weaken by taking exceptions. 

GeDtlemen, this is the first time that judicial cognizance has been taken of a matter like 
this; the first time that a criminal prosecution has been commenced against consuls and 
for political reasons. I believe I am not mistaken when I siy that it would be well to be 
more careful in a second attempt of the kind. Let us examine the case attentively and we 
will derive profit from it, for the present as well as for the future. 

Two classes of privileges are united with the functions of a consul, general privileges and 
special privileges. The first apply to the consuls of all nations, and are founded on the law 
of nations ; the second result from particular stipulations inserted in the treaties negotiated 
with each nation. 

The first document which I have to consult, relative to the relations between France and 
Mexico, is the treaty of March 13, 17G9, which was for a long time bindiug upon France 
and Spain, then mistress of all that part of America. In it we find a clause intended to 
settle the privileges of the consuls of both countries, which is as follows : 

"Consuls, being subjects of the prince who appoints them, shall enjoy personal immu- 
nity, without being liable to arrest or imprisonment, except in case of atrocious crimes, or when the con- 
suls are also traders. Their papers, or those belonging to their office, can be touched under no pretext 
whatever, unless the consul be also a trader, in which case, as far as regards his commercial 
affairs, he shall be proceeded with according to the regulations in the treaties concerning 
foreign merchants." 

I find another treaty negotiated between the government of the Restoration and Mexico, 
which was then an independent power ; it is an almost verbal repetition of the treaty of 
1769. 

On the 11th of August, 1839, a new agreement was entered into between Mexico and 
King Louis Philippe ; I call the attention of the court to Article 3, the terms of which are 
these : 

" Until the two nations can conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation, to settle in a 
definitive manner, and to their mutual advantage, the future relations of France and Mex- 
ico, diplomatic agents and consuls, citizens of every class, vessels and merchandise of both 
countries, shall each continue to enjoy in the other whatever franchises, privileges, and immunities they 
have had, or may be granted, by treaty or by custom, to the most favored foreign nation." 

Now, if I search in the various international treaties what the privileges are of the most 
favored nation, I find, in a great number of them, the most absolute personal immunity 
for consuls. 

I have here one made between the present government and the republic of Salvador, and 
I presently find, in its 23d article, the general clause which follows : 

" The consuls-general, consuls, and vice-consuls, as well as consular attaches, chancellors, 
and secretaries, in the performance of the duties of their mission, shall enjoy, in both coun- 
tries, all the privileges, exemptions, and immunities that may be conceded, at their place 
of residence, to the agents of the same rank of the most favored nation," &c. 

And afterwards more particularly : "Those agents shall enjoy personal immunity in all 
cases ; they shall not be arrested, brought to trial, or put in prison, except in case of atrocious crime." 
By what I have specified, it is evident that this Article 23 is no more than the treaty of 
1769 more elaborated. Except in case of atrocious crime, consuls can neither be arrested 
nor brought to trial. So that, in this point of view, we might have been able to maintain, 
in regard to two of the accused, that no proceedings could legally hare been instituted 
against them, and, with still greater reason, that no judgment could have been pronounced 
against them. And then, as far as complicity is concerned, what would have become of 
the charge against the oihers ? Thus, then, there is no distinction, in this respect, between 
consuls and diplomatic agents. In view of these immunities, conceded to them by treaties, 
their standing is the same, since there is no question now with regard to the simple rule of 
the law of nations, whence a distinction might be deduced. Here treaties constitute the 
law, and they make no distinction. 

But I will, perhaps, be met with the objection that war dissolves all treaties, and that 
there is now a war with Mexico. I reply, that this would be to fall into a new confusion, 
which it is important that we should avoid. 

If war dissolves treaties as far as they relate to diplomatic relations, it does not annul 
them totally as far a% they regard maritime and commercial arrangements. Why this dif- 
ference? Why continue the relations of nation to nation, which ought to continue not- 
withstanding a state of war, uuless they be dissolved by express declaration to that effect 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 243 

and by stipulations specialty opposite ? The reason is because, if the governments, if their 
flags are at war, at least their real national interests — their commercial interests especially — 
are not I repeat it, they are not, unless it be by means of blockades and absence of com- 
munication, means which begin to be considered more and more barbarous every day, and 
which already, in fact, no longer exist in the greater part of the wars of our times. 

Commerce is the life of nations, and governments cannot seek or act to destroy that life. 
Now, if the consul is the essential agent of commerce, its protector, its safeguard, it is clear 
that, differently from the diplomatic agent, he does not disappear for the simple reason that 
peace has ceased. 

Suppose, in fact, that war does break out ; what is proposed to be done with the consul, 
to whom treaties have granted reciprocal immunities ? Can he, perhaps, be transformed 
into a consul despoiled of his stipulnted immunities, and, so to speak, into a half-consul 1 
No ; he is either nothing or he remains what he is according to treaties ; he remains con- 
sul on the same conditions in which the two contracting parties have placed him. Is there 
sought a proof of this? I do not pretend to intimate that we should receive exemplifica- 
tions from foreign governments; we can at least derive some instruction from them. I 
hive here a proclamation issued by the military commandant of Puebla, under date of 
March 10, 1863, and addressed to the inhabitants : 

"Art. 1. All the French, resident in this city, shall, three hours after the publication 
of this decree, present themselves before the general, second in command of the military 
department embracing this State, in order to obtain letters to secure their personal safety, 
after which they loill pass to the residence of the consul or vice-consul who represents them, and shall 
remain there during the attack on this place, or during the time that the invading army remains 
in the neighborhood," &c, &c, &c. 

" Abt. 2. As the object of the preceding regulations is no other than to insure all possible 
security to French citizens resident in Puebla, the authorities will not be responsible for 
any misfortunes or accidents that may happen to the persons of such Frenchmen as refuse 
to conform to them." 

There follows a notice from General Ortega to the consuls of foreign nations, under date 
of March 14, 1863, and couched in the following terms : 

"This position has been very promptly assaulted by the French army, and, in view of 
the disastrous accidents that often ensue in such cases, 1 advise you to place in a secure position 
whatever objects of value your government may have confided to you, as well as the interests of your con- 
sulate, and of the subjects of the nation which you represent. 

" Having, on my part, complied with what I consider my duty as commanding officer of 
this department, you will strive, for your part, in the way that seems most prudent and con- 
venient to you, for the interests lohich you represent. ' ' 

Such is, gentlemen, even in war, the position of the consul. If he is consul in virtue of 
the law of nations, he remains consul in virtue of the law of nations ; if he is consul in 
virtue of treaties, he remains consul in virtue of treaties. 

But, then, it will be objected to me, a consul can do anything he pleases — disturb, agitate, 
insult with impunity, the nation to which he is accredited. No, nothing of the kind is to 
be feared ; because the government has a very simple remedy at its disposal, of which it 
can always make use. It can withdraw his exequatur from the consul whom it considers 
dangerous, and even expel him if he be a foreigner, and if he has really failed in his duty, 
by the abuse of his official character and of his immunities. There now remains the case of 
atrocious crime, which destroys those immunities entirely ; and doubtless it is on this ground 
that the commissary of police, who evidently strives to support his case on this notion, who 
has studied the treaties but misapplied them, acted in the beginning in virtue of Article 
78 of the Penal lode. By reading that article, it will be seen, gentlemen, that the crime 
which it provides for and punishes is really an atrocious crime ; but it will likewise be seen 
with what reason the government has since recognized that it was neither proper nor sen- 
sible to apply such a qualification to the acts involved in these proceedings, even should 
they succeed in being proved. Doubtless for this reason it was that the severe process of 
the examination was not resorted to in regard to Seiior Maneyro, who was accused after the 
others, and when the 78th article of the aforesaid code was no longer held in view. Thus 
one of his personal immunities was recognized, but that does not suffice ; we must go 
further and acknowledge that the two consuls, in this case, are both regarded as under the 
shield and protection of the immunities so expressly inserted in the treaties. 

And when I defend here the rights of a foreign consul, I am not inspired only by the 
interests of that foreigner ; I am also inspired by the regard due to justice and the honor 
of our country, which should give an example of respect for treaties and for the rights 
accruing from them to all nations, to the end that they should in their turn observe them 
in regard to us. I maintain, equally, that the two consuls accused are under the protection 
of the same immunities ; I maintain it upon general principles, and for the sake of the 
observance of those general principles, which may not be violated without danger ; and I 



244 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

consider it fortunate that, at the same time, those principles should be the safeguard of 
the fate, of the liberty, and of the honor of a venerable sire, whose merited discharge will, 
I hope, be decreed by the court. 

But, independently of those general immunities, there is another entirely special, and 
even more powerful, if possible, for the protection of Sefior Maneyro. This immunity 
results from the fact that he acted only under express orders from his government. Here 
I have no need of citing treaties ; I may refer to the law of nations, which, I have already 
said, does not place consuls on the same footing with diplomatic agents. On the principles 
established by the law of nations, when consuls have acted under the orders of their govern- 
ment, they can never be prosecuted individually nor prosecuted before the courts. 

Here is what Dalloz says on the subject, (General Jurisprudence ; word, Foreign Consuls :) 

"The jurisdiction of the French tribunals cannot extend so far as to investigate the 
acts of foreign consuls in France honestly performed in accordance with orders from their 
government. (Deeree of 13th Yendemiaire, year 9 ; approved by official circulars from the 
department of foreign affairs and justice, April 18, 1818, and May 29, 1819.) 

" The acts in question are considered as the acts of the foreign government, and conse- 
quently are in the category of political acts treated of between government and government. 
The ministerial letter of the 19th Floreal, of the year 8, is conceived in the same spirit." 

Merlin (Repertory of Jurisprudence; title, Foreign Consuls,) adopts the same opinion, 
as also does Frelix, (Treatise on International Law,) as well as Goujet and Merget, (Dic- 
tionary ; word, Consuls.) who say likewise : 

" Consuls who have no treaties analogous to those which we have mentioned are treated 
in France like other individuals of the same nations. Nevertheless, consuls cannot be 
prosecuted before the courts of the country in which they reside for acts done in their 
consular capacity and by order of their government." 

It is true that Dalloz, in the passage which I have cited from him, adds these words : 
" and with the approbation of the French authorities." But it is evident that he is mistaken 
in the law, and gives to the documents which he quotes a signification which they do not 
bear, since it cannot rationally be supposed that the government should cause the prosecu- 
tion of an act previously known to and approved by it. For the rest, and of this I hope 
to convince the court, it matters little, in view of the fact that the official documents 
received by Seiior Maneyro, and communicated by him according to orders of his government, 
had been previously presented to the French government and had not been disapproved by 
it. M. Senart established this point for my client as well as for his own. 
. From this the court sees that the legal status of Seiior Maneyro is as strong as his personal 
status is interesting. I might stop here, but this would not suffice for the defence of a man 
of so much probity as my client, of so much consideration for thirty years at Havre, and 
one who stakes his honor on proving that he has not been unworthy of this good reputation. 
He has the right of being entirely justified, of proving that he ought not to have been 
prosecuted, not only on account of the letter of the law, but likewise on account of the 
relation of the facts themselves of which he is accused. 

Let us see, then, what SeEor Maneyro^is blamed for doing, and let us see especially what 
he has really done. 

The court knows that he is charged with having, in the course of the present year and of 
1862, committed himself to evil practices and communications within and without the 
empire, for the purpose of disturbing the public peace and exciting contempt and odium 
against the government of the Emperor. 

What I have read is the text of the law, and the summons to the accused was couched in 
the same terms. I do not wish to say anything of that law itself, provoked as it was by a 
criminal and lamentable act.* But that law does not appear, either to those who proposed it 
or to those who voted for it, to have for its object to punish and frustrate conspiracies against 
the warlike or diplomatic policy of France ; it was made at a time when the motto, the 
empire is peace, already enjoyed all its prestige. More stringent laws were sought for the 
security of the empire ; the 78th article of the penal code had provided for crimes against 
the security or the external power of France, and that was not what was then thought of; 
what was wanted was to protect a life which was believed to be conspired against by enemies 
who had correspondence both within and without. 

Such was the intention of the law ; it had no other, as I understand. Nevertheless, by 
implication it has been extended to correspondence with hostile journals, by the sentence 
of November 30, 1S61, given by the court of Paris. Let us read that sentence : 

"Considering that article 2 of the law of the 27th of February, 1858, in decreeing 
penalties against malpractices and conspiracies abroad, entered into for the purpose of dis- 
turbing the public peace or of exciting contempt and odium against the government, has 
necessarily had in view such c trrespondence and communications as feed the foreign press 

• Tlir attempt of < Irslni. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 245 

with calumnies against the government of the Emperor ; that it would even be very difficult 
to rind any other means of propagating contempt and odium against the government, out- 
side of France ; that in view of the nature of the punishment and the similarity of the 
expressions employed, it is evident that the law of 1858 seeks to repress the custom of fomenting the 
injurious attacks of the foreign press, as the ordinary legislation punishes those of the home press, ' ' &c. , &c. 

Gentlemen, I have laid a stress on these last words because— a notable fact — if the pub- 
lication be made in France it will be prosecuted, as the judgment of the court with reason 
remarks, only in virtue of the ordinary legislation in regard to the press, and for this same 
reason the communications made will be culpable only in so far as that which constitutes 
the object of them is of such a character as should be prosecuted in case of publication in 
France. And how can it be otherwise with publications and communications, when there 
is question of foreign periodicals ? 

" Considering," thus proceeds the judgment of the court already quoted, " that, in fact, 

J has maintained for several years a correspondence with periodicals whose animosity toivards 

France is very notorious ; that the documents previous to the 22d of July, 1858, if they afford 
no occasion for a prosecution, constitute an element for the moral appreciation of the political spirit 
and of the general tendency of the correspondence of the accused, and that they ought, under this 
view, be retained in the case : 

"Considering that the acts not prescribed and relative to the journals of Dresden and 
of Geneva manifest a positive and continued intention to propagate odium and contempt against the 
imperial government ; that the sole knowledge of the systematic ill-will of the journals in question 

should make known to J that he was contributing to a work of enmity and slander directed against 

the government of his country; that the articles which form part of the correspondence which 
he maintained with them, and principally the letters confiscated upon the institution of judicial pro- 
ceedings, demonstrate that the accused had wholly associated himself to the purposes of those journals : 

" Considering that he has thus maintained correspondence calculated to drew odium and contempt 
on the government of the Emperor," &c, &c. 

This shows, gentlemen, how far it was thought, in November, 1861, possible to proceed 
in the application of the law of 1858. But, although it widens the range of its application, 
I shall say no more of what that law permitted, but more of what was then thought. The 
court will notice that the court of Paris traced out the essential characteristics that must 
constitute the crime, and these characteristics were : first, the sending to foreign journals 
systematically hostile to France of calumnious writings against the government of the Emperor ; 
secondly, the object, in such writings, of exciting odium and contempt against the government, and of 
disturbing the public peace ; thirdly, the habitual employment of malpractices with the constant 
and clearly proved intention of entering upon a culpable course of communications, as well 
at home as abroad, against the government of the Emperor. 

Now let us see whether anything of all this can be, I shall not say established, but even 
alleged against Senor Maneyro. 

The counsel for the government has founded the prejudice against him and against the 
other accused on the following four inductions : 

Their presumed sentiments in regard to the politics of France and the war with Mexico ; 
their relations with each other and with Mexico ; the publications that have been sent to 
them by the Mexican government, and which they have communicated or transmitted ; 
the extracts from newspapers and pamphlets that have been directed to them under their 
names. 

To arrive at these inductions, the prosecuting officer presently took up, not the first of 
the accused — M. Montluc, the consul general — but a simple Mexican, Seiior Eodriguez. 
Taking his position and his sentiments into mature consideration, it was inferred that he 
must be hostile to France and devoted to Mexico, and therefore that everything that he 
might say, do, or write, everything that he might receive or send, would be undertaken 
or conceived in a spirit of hostility and with a purpose of causing disturbance, in which 
those would be participators who would hold relations with him, and who are now his 
co-accused. 

Against the first mode of induction I protest forthwith, not only as a lawyer but as a 
citizen, in the name of the liberty of human opinions. And have I not the right of doing 
so, particularly in the name of Sefior Maneyro ? Should we not excuse him for loving 
Mexico? It is certainly allowed to a man born at Puebla, who has yet his home there, 
as he himself told the court, to be afflicted at seeing that city besieged, to endeavor to 
remove the horrors of war, to be deeply affected at considering his native city taken by 
assault, his home ensanguined with the blood of his fellow-countrymen, perhaps with that 
of his relatives. 

Let us not seek, then, inductions so far out of the way. Sentiments so natural can never 
serve as a pretext for making accusations, if they have led to nothing culpable in itself ; 
because, if the prosecuting agents of the government should take as a mark of culpability 
the disapproval of this war with Mexico, and the ardent desire of seeing it concluded, this 



246 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

palace so vast could not contain all the accused. How ! when the most cherished inter- 
ests of numerous families are found involved in a distant war. whose causes and purposes 
are, to say the least of them, difficult to be understood, shall it not be permitted to those 
■who suffer from it to deplore its existence, to express their opinions upon it, to use their 
endeavors to ward it off or bring it to a termination ? When the heart is ready to burst 
must it remain dumb ? Would it not be a tyrannical law that would seek to restrain the 
manifestations of thought and of the most irresistible emotions ? Can we not speak of 
peace, complain of the war, without being punished for it ? Ah. such rigors cannot be 
proposed to the justice of men ; such maxims cannot be adopted ; for myself, indeed, the 
very mention of them makes me shudder. 

Oftentimes have I heard and read, outside of these sacred precincts, such charges and 
admonitions as were repeated yesterday. We are told, " Restrain your pacific sentiments 
at the bottom of your heart ; it is culpable to manifest them when our banner is unfurled ; 
let your thoughts, let your reason humble themselves and be silent before the uniform of 
the grenadier and the red jacket of the zouave !" Gentlemen, this is a very commonplace 
idea, which can doubtlessly be worked up by means of brilliant words ; but it is a com- 
monplace to which recourse is frequently had, and, for all the sense it contains, it is no 
more than commonplace. 

At what time, it may be asked, then, shall we be allowed to talk of peace, to take counsel 
with each other, to show that it is possible? Before the war? But the existence of war 
is not known until the vessels have sailed to convey the army, until that army is already 
on march ; ■ and sometimes only by the roar of the cannon is it known that it has been 
declared. Shall it be perchance after the war ? After the war, alas ! we are only left to 
mourn over the ruins. Thus, then, during the war, and before its evils have appeared or 
have come to be irreparable, is it permitted, then only can it be patriotic to exclaim, in the 
name of reason, of humanity, and of peace : ' : Avoid blood and the hostile conflict of two 
countries that can yet be conciliated and understand each other." 

These are sentiments which it is always good to propagate — means which it is always good 
to try. As to me, I never consider them premature or out of season ; I should fear much 
more lest they should come too late. Sero medicina paratur quum mala per longas invaluere 
moras. 

Let us derive instruction, gentlemen, from a passage of which we are permitted to speak, 
inasmuch as it has passed into the domain of history. 

A half century ago France left on the battle-fields of Spain 200,000 men ; on those of 
Russia 400,000 ; and hundreds of millions of money, and whole provinces separated from her 
territory, paid the penalty of her gigantic rashness. Were the wars of those times, now 
judged and condemned, perhaps, merely due to the eccentricities of a great genius? No ; 
they should be attributed to the muteness, to the forced silence of such opinions as could 
prevent them ; to the spirit of adulation and servilism which flattered every propensity, 
urged on every excessive trait of character, and especially to that commonplace notion which 
I assail, and which I shall continue to assail, that prudence and moderation should no 
longer seek to be heard as soon as the cannon has spoken in its thunder tones. 

Let us assert it loudly : reflections, friendly counsels, censures even, provided they be 
dictated by good faith and expressed in temperate terms, whether they come from a French- 
man or from a foreigner, can always be uttered with freedom and honor. Let us not reject 
them ; on the contrary, let us take charge of them. Oftentimes and ever is flattery ready 
to do its work ; let us leave room for honest, well-meant contradiction, and, above all, let 
us not renew for our time, to which it is not suitable, that maxim of a period of despotism 
and degeneracy : " Whoever is not of the opinion of Caesar is the enemy of Caesar." 

After this first induction, the merits of which I have just examined, Senor Maneyro is 
charged with his personal relations. And what were his personal relations with the four 
persons associated with him in this accusation ? B( Bor Maneyro went to see M. Montluc, 
his consul general, twice a month ; was this too frequent an intercourse with his superior, 
from whom he was to receive his directions and official communications ? M Bout?? He 
only saw him twice, and he himself has told you with what motive : he wished to request 
M. Bone, a professor, to interest himself for a youth who was to pass his examination as a 
bachelor of arts. My client is not acquainted with M. Laverriere : and as to Serior Rodri- 
guez, who has been appointed consul at Marseilles, and has consequently come to he his 
colleague, he saw him twice only in the house of Senor Li Fuente. minister of Mexico in 
Paris 

To this were the relations so much censured in Sefior Maneyro limited. Evidently such 
a species of accusation docs not deserve discussion Let us pass to the third induction. 

The prosecuting agent of the government says i i Sefior Maneyro: You have received 
letters from the President of the republic of Mexico, from his secretary, from his ministers, 
and you have communicated their c intents I > others, and you have even transmitted them 
jo the newspapers, so that you have committed tie crime sought to be prevented by the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 247 

law of 1858, a crime which consists in malpractices atid maintaining secret relations against 
the government. 

It is to be remarked, that Senor Maneyro might have denied these communications, as 
there was nothing established to prove them against him ; but, being one of those men 
who never deny their acts, he declared them without hesitation. To whom did he com- 
municate those documents? To a foreign journal, the Independence Beige. He himself 
says that he might equally have communicated them to the newspapers of France — for 
example, to the political director of the Siecle. Had he done so, what would have been 
the conclusion that could have been drawn from it? This : that he would have been con- 
sidered more of a partisan of the politics of that journal ; somewhat more of those of the 
18,000 votes which its director obtained at a recent election. [The audience smiles.*] He 
might also have communicated them to the editor of the Opinion Nationale, which does 
not seem to approve of the war with Mexico, and which would have dealt in severe terms 
with it. But Senor Maneyro did not turn his attention to any French functionary, for the 
simple reason that he had no relations with them ; and if he sent two communications to 
the Independence Beige, it was simply because he had, at a former period, had some acci- 
dental intercourse with one of its editors. 

But here there are two observations to be made. First of all, in making these commu- 
nications Senor Maneyro obeyed an order of his government. I have here a letter written 
to him, under date of February 27, 1861 : 

" National Palace. 

"It being necessary for this government to have frequent advices of the political condition 
of France, and the order being yet in effect which requires consuls to transmit to this de- 
partment a monthly review of such political events as transpire in the respective countries 
in which they reside, I recommend to you, very strongly, a strict compliance with its re- 
quisitions. His excellency the president moreover orders that you should transmit every 
month to this department an account of the mercantile movements of that empire, show- 
ing, in general, the condition of it with other powers, and especially in regard to its com- 
merce with Mexico. 

" Whilst bringing this subject to your notice, I desire to renew the expression of my 
esteem and consideration. 

"ZARCO. 

' ' The Mexican Consul at Havre. ' ' 

Now there follows another despatch, dated April 28, 1862 : 

" The President of the republic recommends to you to give the greatest possible publicity 
to the printed documents annexed to this communication ; and this I desire to state for 
your information. 

"TERAN. 

" The Mexican Consul at Havre." 

Afterwards we find a letter from Sefior Doblado, minister of foreign affairs of the Mexican 
republic, under date of May 24, 1862, and couched in the following terms : 

" The supreme go^rnment has received with much interest the information which you 
communicate in your note of 13th ultimo, with reference to what has passed in virtue of 
the preliminaries signed at La Soledad, and I hope you will continue to communicate what- 
ever information you may be able to acquire on this particular point ; for which purpose 
you will lose no occasion or opportunity to make investigations. 

"DOBLADO. 

"The Mexican Consul at Havre." 

Such are the orders received by Sefror Maneyro from his government ; and in obeying 
them he certainly did nothing that was not legitimate. Following those same instructions, 
M. Montluc, the consul general, imparted, not only to the public but, above all, to the 
French ministeis and to the Emperor himself, the official communications of his government 
and his own observations— documents so notable, so worthy to be taken into consideration, 
and which one of the honorable counsel for the defence read here yesterday. All these 
efforts for good having proved fruitless, there came another order, addressed to the Mexican 
consuls, under date of April 23, 1863 This order was sent by Sehor La Fuente, the pre- 
sent minister of foreign affairs of Mexico, and is as follows : 

* Allusion is made to the election of M. Havin, director of the SiScle, to the Chamber of Deputies. 



248 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 



" Department of Foreign Affairs and Government, 

" National Palace, Mexico, March 23, 1863. 
"The supreme government justly acknowledges your efforts to ward off, or at least to 
diminish, the evils of the war which the Emperor has brought upon us. But your efforts 
have proved vain, before the blind resolution of attacking us, not to obtain justice, which 
we have never denied, but to interfere by force of arms in our politics and our national 
affairs. Blood has already flowed, and much more will yet flow. I do not understand the 
satisfaction which is had in shedding it, nor the benefits which France has to gain in kind- 
ling a war without any hope of terminating it other than by the dishonorable peace which 
is proposed to us, on condition of sacrificing the government which we have selected. As 
it is desirable to take another step, I have to tell you to suspend absolutely all proceedings 
that may have for their object to inform or persuade that government, which is so unwill- 
ing to listen to the truth and to the dictates of justice. 

"FUENTE." 

These are, gentlemen, the correspondences of Seiior Maneyro with his government. And 
what were the printed documents sent to him by it ? They were the proclamations of con- 
gress, the speeches of President Juarez and his ministers ; there was also the letter of Gen- 
eral Ortega, which was read here in court yesterday, and which did not suffer by comparison 
with that of General Forey. On these documents only, in this parr, are the judicial pro- 
ceedings against Seiior Maneyro founded ; and I maintain that here there is nothing serious 
in the proceedings, and that, by saying that he had acted by order of his government, and 
proving it, as he does prove, Seiior Maneyro says enough to insure him from any further 
vexation. 

Notwithstanding all this, the prosecuting agent of the government is not willing that 
the case should rest here. You should, says he, obey your government in all that concerns 
a consular agent ; but that government has no right to tell you to occupy yourself with 
politics, and you have transcended the powers which your official position gives you, by 
occupying yourself with politics. 

Gentlemen, I fear that a line of conduct in accordance with these principles would be 
open to the charge of serious disobedience. Let us figure to ourselves a functionary who 
would reply to his government, " No, no ! I do not wish to obey such orders. I divide 
them, and only reply to what I please. If they ask me the price of sugars and of cochineal, 
very well ; I will communicate all information on the subject ; but I do not wish to mingle 
in politics — on this point I remain deaf and dumb." Would not such a man be a very 
stupid agent ? And what would we think of the government that would employ him, and 
retain him in his position ? 

Now, i proceed further : How could that agent, in time of war especially, distinguish 
between political interests and commercial interests ? He would be a very able man, in- 
deed, who could trace the line which separates the two, and very secure of his pen the one 
who could speak of the latter without saying anything of the former. Let us remark, more- 
over, gentlemen, that this should have its direct and necessary application, as well in regard 
to our own interests as to those of foreign nations The theory which I maintain is as much 
for our own consuls as for those of other nations. And now the counsel for the prosecution 
will allow me, not to give advice, but merely to make an intimation. I consider it propel 
to ask the ministers of foreign affairs and of the marine from whom they receive their in- 
formation in regard to Mexico since the rupture of diplomatic relations, and they will 
reply that they receive them from the consuls, and almost solely from the consuls. 

There is certainly in that country a commander-in-chief of our army, with other gen- 
erals and a number of staff officers. If you ask them for information in regard to the 
military forces, the state of the fortified positions, most assuredly they will give it to you ; 
but if you interrogate them with regard to the state of feeling, the desires of the people, 
the condition of parties, or, in fine, with regard to public opinion, that moral power which 
judges definitively and without appeal of triumphs and disasters and of their consequences, 
they will say nothing of all these, because they know nothing about them, and are not in 
a condition to know ; these are matters of which nothing can be known except by means 
of consuls. Let us, then, let alone those men who instruct and serve their governments, 
because if we hinder them we may expect reprisals. Foreign governments will use against 
us the arms which we think we have forged against them, and we will remain in the de- 
plorable condition of knowing nothing certain in regard to those countries into which our 
armies go to maintain our most important interests. Consuls, in such cases, will keep 
silence, as well about what is favorable as about what is adverse ; and if we proclaim the 
reign of silence over all that most imperiously demands the exercise of thought and of 
word, we will extinguish all the intelligence of our agents. For what purpose, then, are 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 249 

those schools, those alumni for consulates, those examinations, and those degrees ? If there 
is only question of watching the mercantile movement, let us take simple bookkeepers, 
•whose functions are limited to keeping account of the arrival and departure of vessels, 
signing invoices and general manifests, and taking note of the component articles and the 
importance of cargoes. 

Another charge made against Senor Maneyro by the prosecution is his correspondence 
with the newspapers. He is thus addressed : "You have received extracts from newspa- 
pers hostile to France, and you have communicated them to other newspapers." 

In order to repel this charge I have to repeat somewhat. Let us remark immediately, 
in regard to Sehor Maneyro, that he has not asked, sent, or received any money, nor has 
he been remunerated with any pleasure, nor has he manifested any exceptional zeal. If 
there existed anything of all this, as far as he is concerned it would, in my opinion, be a 
very trifling affair ; but to be brief, it is less than this, because nothing of the kind exists. 
Let us remark, moreover, that he has had no intercourse with any French journal, nor 
with those of Dresden and Geneva, characterized by the edict of 1861 as hostile to the 
government of France. The Independence Beige alone received two communications from 
him, and these merely, I request the court to remember it well, on official documents sent 
by his government. The imperial advocate appears to have extended to other communi- 
cations the fact acknowledged by Senor Maneyro ; I desire to call his attention to this in- 
voluntary error, and I have no doubt his sense of justice will correct it. [Sign of assent 
from the imperial advocate.] But even if Senor Maneyro had sent extracts of newspapers 
and other communications, he had the right to do so, unless they were defamatory or cul- 
pable, in which case alone they could be prosecuted. Let us cite our precedents. 

In 1857 and 1858 there was a judicial proceeding in England. Some French politicians 
had sent various political articles to English newspapers. A lawsuit was instituted to 
recover the money for inserting those articles, and the pleadings were commenced by affi- 
davit, according to the custom of England. The incompetency of the English tribunals 
to decide the case was pleaded, and they declared themselves competent. The case was 
prosecuted no further, as it appears. I presume that this was not on account of the aban- 
donment by the plaintiffs of the considerable sums which they claimed ; it is more likely 
that satisfaction was made to them. 

This, however, is a matter of little importance, because from this instance I infer merely 
that individuals, Frenchmen or foreigners, may send articles to foreign periodicals in regard 
to the affairs of France without thereby incurring the charge of having committed any fault. 
And the example comes from high quarters, since there was then question of the minister 
of the interior and the ambassador then in actual service. I find these details, on which 
I wish to insist no otherwise, in the Times of November 26, 1862. 

Finally, gentlemen, I come to the last induction of the prosecuting agent for the govern- 
ment in reference to Senor Manevro, and deducted from his correspondence with Senor Del 
Eio. 

I may forthwith make an observation as simple as it is important A. correspondence 
supposes two persons writing to each other. Now, if Seiior Del Bio has written to Senor 
Maneyro, Senor Maneyro is accused of the receipt of the letters of Senor Del Bio. What 
has really passed? Senor Del Bio, an able and influential patriot, remained some time in 
France, where he had dealings with various persons to whom he wrote ; he did not write 
only to Seiior Maneyro, but to a number of persons, and I am surprised that there are only 
five accused included in this indictment, if it suffices to have received a letter from Sehor 
Del Bio in order to be a promoter of disorders and of public disturbances ; he not only 
wrote to Messrs. Montluc, Bodnguez, and Maneyro — he wrote also to M. Demontel, to a 
brother of Seiior Maneyro, who is consul at Bordeaux, to the principal editor of the Chari- 
vari, for the mention of which here I ask to be excused ; it is by no means my intention 
to accuse it. Senor Del Eio likewise wrote to the editor of Le Nord newspaper ; what is 
more, he wrote to Don Joaquin de Errazu. Whence, it appears that he wrote to any per- 
son he thought proper, that was a Mexican, only because Serior Del Bio thought it patriotic 
to distribute his writings. Wherefore, if Serior Maneyro has received documents from that 
indefatigable citizen, others have likewise received them, and in greater number. Why, 
then, has not Seiior de Errazu been called up, who, being rich, would have been in a state, 
had he so wished, to defray the expenses of the circulation of these documents? It has 
not been done, and very important reasons are found for not doing so. I shall not, there- 
fore, say that there are two sorts of weights and measures used ; but I shall say that by 
this very fact it is recognized that such missives (which did not even reach their destina- 
tion, as they were confiscated on the way) cannot, whatever be their contents, interest 
those who neither kept them nor sought for them. If it has been thought proper to act 
in a decided way in regard to Seiior Maneyro, it is doubtless because he is a consul, and 
because he received and sent official documents appertaining to his government. But the 
conjunction of three actions, innocent in themselves, as I have already demonstrated, can- 



250 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

not_constitute a culpable action. Then it is proper to acknowledge that, in regard to Seflor 
Maneyro, the prosecuting officer has gone entirely astray. 

Now, when I reflect, in general, on these judicial proceedings, after having, as I hope, 
cleared away the whole charge against my client, I confess I feel two causes for serious 
apprehension : one is the new extension given to that law of 1858, already so much enlarged 
by the interpretations which it has received. In presence of this new weapon in the hands 
of power, which menaces the safety of every individual, I ask myself who will venture in 
future — I shall not say to publish his dissenting opinions by means of speech, of the news- 
papers, or any other way of writing, but even to consign them to private correspondence ? 
Who will venture to express his intimate thoughts to a friend, and abandon himself in his 
letters to that unrestrained freedom, the sweetest and most consoling of the necessities of 
the heart ? I can no more communicate my ideas to a cherished relative, to a distant 
friend, and make them participators in my hopes and fears. Shall it be necessary, then, 
that a person should confine his sentiments, his life, within a prescribed circle ? And if one 
passes that in his correspondence, if two letters from my friend are found in my hands, or 
two of mine in his, censuring and criticising what seems deserving of disapprobation, shall 
it be said that we have sought to disturb the public peace, and to excite odium and con- 
tempt against the government of the Emperor ? 

What gives me less concern is the example which we would give to the governments 
themselves against which we were thinking we only secured ourselves. Eeference has 
been made to our consuls abroad ; I speak of our hundred thousand compatriots residing in 
Mexico, who have gone thither in search of an establishment, temporary or definitive, and 
who have there interests of importance. If they are harassed and disturbed, they cannot 
rely upon their consuls, upon their fellow countrymen, upon their government, without 
fear of offending the Mexican government. If, on the contrary, they are treated with 
humanity, they cannot then rejoice at it or speak highly of it without passing for traitors 
to their country. 

I know that there are men who give themselves very little concern about these matters. 
We have the power, say they ; our fellow-countrymen will be protected by our valiant army. 

Gentlemen, let us predicate nothing upon force. Moreover, that never suffices to justify 
and purify ; what it establishes has its vicissitudes and its terrible instabilities. Let us 
base everything on right, on truth, on reason, on moderation ; let us be persuaded that this 
is at the same time justice aud good policy. In this way, gentlemen, there is no reason 
to fear disastrous retaliations ; good examples are given ; they are what we ought to give, 
and thence we shall derive honor and profit. It behooves France to take the initiative in 
everything ; she is great enough, sympathetic enough in the world to have her example 
generally imitated and followed. 

(Warm manifestations of applause followed this defence, and were received by the court 
and audience without any attempt to restrain them.) 

The case was adjourned to the following day, the 6th, for final decision. 

Note. — On the Gth of June, on the opening of the court, a decision was rendered 
releasing the rive persons accused from all the charges against them. 



Circular from the .Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding Ihe arrest of Mexican consuls in France. 

Department of Foreign Relations and of Government, 

San Luis Potosi, August 15, 18G3. 

In addition to the grave and repeated outrages committed by the government of Napo- 
leon III against the rights of the republic and the law of nations, he himself has just 
authorized still further indignities, most unworthy in their petty malice, against the con- 
suls, Messrs. Montluc and Maneyro— the one a general of France, the other a private indi- 
vidual of the port of Havre— loth appointed by the government of Mexico, and in the per- 
fect exercise of their functions, by virtue of the which ezquatur had been given to them by 
the imperial government. 

In clear infraction of the modern code of public law, of universal practice, and of the 
treaties which have been celebrated between Mexico and France, (which, in so far as relatt s 
to consuls, must be considered as binding, so long as on the one side and on the other 
these agents are maintained,) the government of the Emperor caused the agents of the 
police to enter into the office of the consul general, to violate his archives, to read his 
books and official papers, to take from all of them such notes as they pleased, making a 
mockery and a jest of the consul, of his exequatur, and of his protests. To such exploits of 
force there was added a wicked and unjust trial, commenced and sustained against both 
consular agents by a public prosecutor, who accused them of maintaining a correspondence 
hostile to the government of the Emperor. 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 251 

The accusation was an outrage against consular privileges, because the acts with which 
our consuls were principally charged had been done by them in compliance with the orders 
of the federal government, and, far from involving any crime or offence, were, as was 
declared with truth by the sentence which closed this unqualifiable proceeding, entirely 
inoffensive and in good faith. 

I desire, on this occasion, to leave on one side all consideration of what the French 
government, with its prodigious invention when searching out causes of insult and of 
reclamation against Mexico, would have said and would have demanded of this country if 
this government had sanctioned such a violence and such an outrage. 

The President has rightly refused to take as the regulating principle of his conduct that 
of a government which, in everything relative to the affairs of Mexico, has only in its 
words manifested any respect for the prescriptions of justice and of civilization. Although 
we have been terribly outraged, we still desire to leave to our aggressors their precedence 
in the path of crime. 

This time, for example, we could well exercise the right of national reprisal, and pro- 
ceed with the consular agents of France in Mexico as they have proceeded in France with 
ours. 

But such a course would be repugnant to us, and would besides lead to an absurdity, 
because the Mexican consuls in France, and vice versa, should not be retained from the 
moment that, through the outrage of the imperial government, this respectable officer 
has been subjected to so profound a degradation. 

It is, in fact, much more convenient and decorous to direct that our consuls in France 
cease to exercise their functions, since they can no longer continue them without insult, 
and that the exequatur of the consuls whom the French government has named in the ports 
and commercial cities of the republic be retired. Certainly a government which treats 
consular officers in this manner is neither worthy of appointing them or receiving them. 

We had maintained these agents in conformity with the least rigorous usages, although 
the Emperor and his generals have made public the real and positive end to which this 
war is to lead, and that it is the destruction of our government and of our republican 
institutions which is sought. 

To make this revelation until the last hope of peace had disappeared is to violate all the 
laws of war, and we are therefore free from any obligation to respect them oa our part. 
Besides, as the government of France ignores the federal government, it cannot respect, 
as in fact it does not respect, any of its rights ; but by this very act it declares it free of 
all obligations towards France, its government and its citizens. 

To this extreme would the conduct of the Emperor lead us if we listened only to the 
voice of our great injuries, and if we sought to prove to our enemies the precise and logi- 
cal consequences of their insane proceedings. But we abstain from adopting this course, 
because we have a respect for public law and our own dignity, not from fear of our invaders, 
whom we are resisting with arms, and shall resist to the end. 

In one word, if in this affair it is not advisable that we should violate our traditional 
policy to initiate proceedings as unjust and as insulting as those of the French government, 
it is still proper to take others of such efficiency and energy as shall justly protect the 
honor of the republic. 

And as this determination can be realized, as I have already intimated, by terminating 
the commissions of our consuls in France, and by withdrawing from the French consuls 
in Mexico the exequatur which has been obtained from the federal government, the Presi- 
dent has been pleased to direct the adoption of this course. 

And by his order I have the honor to communicate the same to you, in order that you 
may be pleased to cause the French consuls and vice-consuls residing in your state to be 
immediately notified of the said supreme resolution, the exact compliance with which you 
will be pleased to opportunely advise. 

Liberty and reform ! 

FUENTE. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 20, 1864. 
Mr. Secretary: With the object of communicating to the government of 
the United States authentic information upon the important political events of 
which the Mexican republic is at this time the theatre, I have the honor to send 



252 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

to you a copy in English of the documents mentioned in the index annexed, and 
which relate to what has heen called the establishment of monarchy in Mexico. 

In the report which Mr. Saligny, minister of France in Mexico, gave to 
General Forey, the 16th June, 1S63, upon the organization of a provisional gov- 
ernment in that country, it is declared in the face of the world that the city of 
Mexico, which only contains two hundred thousand (200,000) inhabitants, is of 
more importance than the entire republic, which contains a population of more 
than eight millions, and that what should be determined upon in that city 
(supposing it to be the spontaneous voice of its inhabitants) should be con- 
sidered as obligatory on the whole nation. The no less strange declaration is 
also made that the indigenous population of Mexico — that is, almost two-thirds 
of the inhabitants there are in the republic — cannot have any political rights, 
and to this time are refused the character of men and Mexicans. 

In conformity with the report of Mr. Saligny, General Forey issued, on the 
said 16th June, that is, only six days after the French army entered the city of 
Mexico, a decree which provided that a junta of thirty-five persons named by 
him, at the suggestion of Mr. Saligny, should elect other three persons, who 
should constitute the executive authority; and that, subsequently, this should 
associate to itself other two hundred and fifteen individuals, also named by 
General Forey, to form the Assembly of Notables, for the purpose of designating 
the form of government which should be adopted. 

On the 18th of said month of June General Forey issued another decree, in 
which he appointed the so-called members of what was called the Superior 
Junta of government, selecting them from among the persons most addicted to 
ultra conservative principles. 

These individuals designated the traitors Juan Nepomuseno Almonte, Pelagio 
Antonio de Sabaslida, and Jose Mariano de Salos, to exercise the executive 
power, and afterwards took up the organization of the Junta of Notables. 
Although only two hundred and fifteen persons were needed to fill up that 
body, there was great difficulty, and several days were passed in completing 
the number, which was at last not completed. The so-called Assembly of 
Notables appointed a committee that should decide upon the form of government 
which should be adopted in Mexico ; and the individuals who constituted it, 
who knew beforehand what they were to propose, after lowering their country 
to such a degree as to picture it as in worse condition than the tribes of Caffres, 
in a report which was written in disparagement of the Mexican name, and of 
lasting reproach to its authors, proposed, for instance, that which it was well 
known, from the time the expedition left the shores of France, they were to 
propose — that is, the monarchy and the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. 

The assembly, which had no will of its own, did not know how to act, not 
even with the precautions necessary to gloss over appearances, and almost with- 
out discussion adopted unanimously, on the same day, the dictation of the com- 
mittee, by determining, so that there should be no doubt that the will of the 
Emperor of the French controlled it, that if the archduke did not accept the 
crown, his Majesty should name the prince who should occupy the throne. 

It was by this three, then, that the French government accomplished what it 
had so repeatedly declared to that of the United States on the score of its pre- 
tended wish not to force the Mexicans to accept any government, but leave them 
to establish that which they should think most suitable. So illy played was 
the farce which the French agents presented t<> the city of Mexico that, even. 
neither the French government nor the Grand Duke Maximilian considered it 
as satisfactory; and in degree, as they could do no less than recognize the plain 
fact that the decision of the so-called notables did not express the will of the 
country, they thought it necessary, merely to save appearances, to require other 
formalities, which cannot but be farces as transparent as the election by the 
notables. The French government has assured that of the United States at a 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 253 

recent period that the popular suffrage Avould be required throughout the 
republic on the question of the form of government to be established, at the 
same time that it was giving out that the monarchy was solidly and perma- 
nently established, as is deducible from the discourses pronounced by the organs 
of that government in the legislative body in the discussion of the affairs of 
Mexico that took place in that assembly at the close of January last past. 
This would, however, be a point of less importance, because the assurances 
given by the French government fall short of fulfilment. The measure which 
it is intended to substitute for universal suffrage, in order to discover what is 
public opinion, is to do so in places occupied by the French troops; it is true 
they carry acts which persons under intimidation affirm, or, by filling up with 
fictitious names, declarations in favor of monarchy and of the Archduke Maxi- 
milian. The French government makes believe that the occupation of the 
Mexican villages by the French army is necessary to the free expression of 
their votes; therefore, on the occupation of such villages by French bayonets, it 
calls it " freeing them from the tyranny of Juarez," and forgets that at the same 
instant it is declaring in the face of the world, and its agents are proclaiming, 
that the constitutional President of the Mexican republic is a wandering fugitive, 
that the national army has been entirely destroyed, and that there no longer 
remains a shadow even of the national government. 

In a separate note I will explain to you in what manner this intrigue of the 
French government has been received by the Mexican nation, and what are the 
demonstrations to which it has given place. I will here only indicate that the 
national government and permanent deputation of the Mexican congress, the 
genuine representation of the nation, protested against that intrigue in the man- 
ner you will see in the documents annexed, (Nos. 11 and 12.) 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., fyc., Sfc. 



Index to the documents which the Mexican legation in Washington remits to tJie Department of State of 
the United States, annexed to iU note of this date. 

1. Report of Mr. Saligny to General Forey on the organization of a junta of government 

and aa assembly of notables, June 1(5. 

2. Decree of General Forey, in conformity with the preceding report, June 16. 

3. Decree of General Forey, in which he appoints the members of the superior junta of 

government, June 18. 

4. Decree of the junta of government upon the appointment of the so-called executive 

power, June 22. 

5. Proclamation of General Forey upon the selection of the executive power, June 23. 
(3. Manifesto of the members of the so-called executive power, June 24. 

7. Decree of the so-called assembly of notables on the establishment of monarchy in 

Mexico, July 11. 

8. Decree of the junta of government providing that the so-called executive power con- 

tinue in function, in the character of regency, until the arrival of Archduke Maxi- 
milian iu Mexico, July 11. 

9. Discourse of D. Manuel Gutierroz Estrada to the Archduke Maximilian, offering him 

the crown of Mexico, October 5. 

10. Reply of the archduke, October 5. 

11. Circular of the national government of Mexico to the governments of friendly nations 

upon the attempted establishment of monarchy in Mexico, July 22. 

12. Protest of the permanent deputation of the national congress of Mexico against the 

monarchy which the French agents have sought to establish in the citv of Mexico, 
July 22. 

IGNO. MARISCAL. 
Washington, February 20, 1864. 



254 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 1. 

SUPERIOR JUNTA CF GOVERNMENT AND ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES. 

Ccmmmiication from the Emperor's minister. 

Mexico, June 16, 1863. 

General : The successive advantages gained by the Freuch army over the troops of the 
enemy have definitively decided the fate of the Mexican nation. The government, which 
a few days ago occupied the capital of the republic, has not awaited the arrival before this 
city of the soldiers who have overthrown the strongest bulwark of its despotism. Your 
columns had scarcely commenced their movements to march from Puebla upon Mexico, 
when the government of Juarez, understanding that all resistance was useless, evacuated 
the capital with the remnants of its vanquished and demoralized army, leaving behind, as 
records of its stay, the traces of those shameful spoliations and of that abominable tyranny 
which constituted its sole rule of conduct. 

Providence, which has so often made use of the flag of France to deliver and regenerate 
nations humbled by despotism, reserved to it also the glory of arresting Mexico in the 
headlong career which was rapidly conducting her to utter ruin by the dilapidation of her 
resources and the sale of her richest states to strangers. A few years more of this unex- 
ampled disorder, which has caused the intervention of the armies of the old continent, and 
there would remain of this country, thrice the size of France, but some few precincts that 
might have resisted the dissolving action of this corrupt and corrupting government : the 
Mexican republic would have lost its nationality. 

The eagles of France have brought to this land, abysmed in the revolutionary whirlpool, 
the kindly sentiments of the Emperor towards this unfortunate people, and hope has been 
reborn in all hearts. Alone among all, an infamous faction, which, under a name of which 
it was unworthy, domineered over Mexico by means of terror, has in its turn trembled 
before the intervention. It has fled before that banner which is the symbol of civilization 
and justice. 

Shall I consider it necessary, general, to prove what I have asserted ? The sympathizing 
acclamations which have saluted your entry into the capital of Mexico, that triumphal 
march of our valiant army beneath an abundant shower of flowers, those crowns thrown 
in profusion to the conquerors of San Lorenzo, Puebla, and other well-known fields of 
combat — are not all these sufficient to testify the sentiments of the immense majority of 
the people towards the deliverers of Mexico? The perfect order which has ceased at no 
time for a single moment to reign in the capital since the flight of the fallen government — 
does not it say with more force than any possible amount of reasoning, that this people, so 
long fatigued and weary, is now in need of repose to heal the wounds inflicted upon its 
industry and prosperity ? Now, from the generous initiative of France, Mexico hopes for 
the means to secure the first steps in her social regeneration aud to prepare the way for the 
permanent establishment that is to dry up the sources of the evils which she has suffered 
up to this time. 

These aspirations of a whole people, general, cannot be ignored, and it is to give them 
the satisfaction which they demand, and at the same time to carry out the benevolent 
intentions of the Emperor towards the Mexican nation, that I lay before you the results of 
the deep study which I have made of the situation of the country, of its necessities, and 
of the means which appear to me proper to attain the object which France proposes to 
herself — that is to say, the reorganization of the government — to the end that the nation, 
reflecting upon itself, may, in all freedom and by the organ of its most intelligent citizens 
and those who enjoy the most consideration, make known the form of government most 
suitable to it. 

It is not possible to convoke a general congress to deliberate on the grave questions now 
pending. The state of the country does not yet permit the representatives of the great 
cities and of the distant states to receive any call made to them for this purpose. 

Neither could we think of making the Indian population participate in this act. so 
important for the Mexican nation. That part of the people, so worthy of interest in every 
respect, has been hitherto excluded from public affairs, and would not understand either 
its gravity or its consequences. 

The capital, in which there is not a single state not represented by its most illustrious 
citizens, reckons about 200,000 inhabitants. It contains a considerable number of men 
distinguished for their intelligence, and accustomed to political life and public affairs. 
Moreover, it is in the capital that that government has weighed most heavily which has 
just fallen. On this great population, then, it is incumbent, under present circumstances, 
to know the best way t. . conclude the era of periodic revolutions, of which Mexico has been 
the theatre for more than half a century. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 255 

I propose to you, then, general, to decree that a Superior Junta, composed of thirty-five 
citizens, chosen from among the most honorable of this great city, should be charged with 
the following powers : 

1. To nominate three Mexican citizens, who should constitute the executive power, and 
two substitutes for those high functions in case of the absence or impediment of the proper 
incumbents. 

2. To elect two hundred and fifteen members chosen from among the citizens of Mexico, 
to form, in conjunction with the members of the Superior Junta, the Assembly of the 
Notables, to whom shall be intrusted the duty of determining upon, the permanent form 
of the government of Mexico, and deliberating upon such other questions as may be sub- 
mitted to them. 

3. To settle the salaries to be paid to the members of the executive department of the 
government. 

The Superior Junta shall be divided into various committees to deliberate on the affairs 
of the different ministers A general meeting will be called by its president, as often as 
the questions preseuted to it demand such a step. 

The presidents and secretaries of the Superior Junta and of the committees, as well as 
those of the Assembly of Notables, shall be named by those bodies in their first meeting 
after organization. This first duty shall be directed by the president, who shall be the 
oldest member in each assembly or committee, accompanied by the two youngest members, 
is the quality of secretaries. 

The members of the Superior Juuta and those of the Assembly of Notables shall have no 
salary. 

The duration of the first session of the Assembly of Notables shall be five days. It may 
be prorogued by the executive power. 

Such are, general, the provisions contained in the constitutional decree, which is annexed, 
and which I request you to sign if you see proper to approve of it. 

Accept, general, the assurance of my high consideration. 

A. DESALIGNY. 

General Forey, 

General of Division, Senator of France, Commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army in Mexico- 



No. 2. 
Decree in reference to the formation of a Superior Junta of government and of an Assembly of Notables. 

THE GENERAL OF DIVISION, SENATOR OF FRANCE, COMJIANDER-IN CHIEF OF THE EXPEDITIONARY 

CORPS IN MEXICO. 

Considering that it is expedient to organize the public authorities that are to replace the 
intervention in the direction of the affairs of Mexico, I have thought it proper, in accord- 
ance with the communication made to me by the Emperor's minister, to decree as follows : 

Art. 1. A special decree shall designate, according to the recommendation of the 
Emperor's minister, thirty-five Mexican citizens to constitute a Superior Junta of govern- 
ment. 

Art. 2. This Superior Junta shall assemble in the place that shall be designated for it 
two days after the publication of the decree announcing the names of its members. 

Art. 3. The opening session of the Junta shall be presided over by the oldest member, 
assisted by the two youngest members in the quality of secretaries. 

Art. 4. The Superior Junta shall proceed in this first session to the nomination of its 
president and of his two secretaries. The election shall be valid only on condition that 
the elected candidates shall have obtained a majority of all the votes cast. 

Art. 5. The inauguration of the dignitaries elected shall take place on the same day._ 

Art. 6. The Junta shall subsequently proceed to the nomination of three Mexican citi- 
zens, who shall be charged with the executive power, and of two substitutes for those high 
functions. A majority of the votes cast shall be necessary to a valid election. 

Art 7. The members of the executive department shall, as soon as elected,. assume the 
direction of the affairs of Mexico. 

Art. 8. The Superior Junta shall settle the salary to be paid to the members of the pro- 
visional government. 

Art. 9. The Junta shall resolve itself into various committees in order to deliberate on 
the questions relating to the different ministers. 

It shall convoke itself into general assembly by means of its president, for the discussion 
of business of greater importance, whenever the executive requests it. 



256 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



OF THE ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES. 

Art. 10. The Superior Junta shall associate themselves, in order to constitute the Assem 
bly of Notables, with 245 members chosen from among the citizens of Mexico, without 
distinction of rank or class. 

Akt. 11. In order to be qualified to join the Assembly of Notables, a person must be 
fully twenty-five years of age, and not disqualified for any office, political or civil. 

Art. 12. The opening of the sessions of the Assembly of Notables shall take place imme- 
diately after the formation of that body. 

Art. 13. The first session shall be devoted to the election of a president, and of two sec- 
retaries, who shall be immediately installed by the provisional organization of the eldest 
and the two youngest members. 

Art. 14. The Assembly of Notables shall occupy itself especially with the form of the 
permanent government of Mexico. The vote on this question must be such that two-thirds 
of the ballots cast, at least, shall be necessary for a decision. 

Art. 15. In case this majority of two-thirds of the votes cast cannot be obtained, after 
three days of balloting, the executive shall dissolve the Assembly of Notables, and the Su- 
perior Junta shall proceed, without delay, to the formation of a new assembly. 

Art. 16. The members of the preceding assembly may be re-elected. 

Art. 17. The Assembly of Notables shall occupy themselves, after having determined on the 
form of the permanent government, with such questions as may be laid before them by or- 
der of the executive department. The first sessiou shall last five days ; it may be prorogued 
by the executive. 

GENERAL REGULATIONS COMMON TO ALL THE DELIBERATING BODIES. 

Art. 18. The secretaries of the Superior Junta, and of its various committees, as also those 
of the Assembly of Notables, shall take down, in writing, the proceedings of the commit- 
tees. They shall, together with the presidents, sign all the resolutions passed by those bodies. 

Art. 19. The sessions of the Superior Junta, and of its committees, as also those of 
the Assembly of Notables, shall not be public. Official acts may be published in the news- 
papers, provided they be transmitted to them by the secretaries, under the authority of 
the respective presidents. 

Art. 20. The members of the Superior Junta, and those of the Assembly of Notables, 
shall receive no salary. 

OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER. 

Art. 21. The members of the executive department shall divide among themselves the 
six ministries ; they sball nominate individually to all the employments dependent on their 
respective offices ; they shall also have the power of dispensing with such employments. 

Art. 22. The executive power shall receive for promulgation, as decrees, the resolutions 
of the Assembly of Notables. It shall have the absolute right of vetoing such resolutions. 
Bills prepared by the Superior Junta shall pass to. the executive for transmission to the 
Assembly of Notables. 

Art. 23. The functions of the executive shall cease from the moment of the inauguration 
of the permanent government, proclaimed by the Assembly of Notables. 

Akt. 24. The Emperor's minister is charged with the execution of the present decree, 
which shall be inserted in the bulletin of the acts of the intervention, and shall be posted 
up in the streets of the capital. 

Given at Mexico, June 16, 1863. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, &cc , Sfc. 



No. 3. 

Decrte nominating the numbers of the Superior Junta of government. 

i he gbnebal or- division and senator of francs, commanding-in-chief the expeditionary 

CORPS IN MEXICO. 

In view of the decree issued on the 16th of June, relative to the establishment of a Su- 
periot Junta of uoveruuient, and in accordance with the proposal of the Emperor's minis- 
ter, it h i8 seemed proper to me to decree as follows: 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 257 

Art. 1. The following persons are named members of the Superior Junta of government : 
D J. Ignacio Pavon, Manuel Diaz de Bonilla, Dr. J. Basilio Arellaga, Teodosio Lares, Dr. 
Francisco Javier Miranda, Ignacio Aguilar y Marocho, Dr. Jose Sollano, Joaquin Velazquez 
de Leon, Antonio Fernandez Monjardin, General Mora y Villamil, Ignacio Sepiilveda, Jos6 
M. Andrade, Joaquin Castillo Lanzas, Mariano Dominquez, Jose Guadalupe Arriola, General 
Adiian Woll, Fernando Mangino, Agapito Munoz, Jose Miguel Arroyo, Teofilo Marin, Gen- 
eral Miguel Cervantes Velasco, Crispiniano del Castillo, Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Juan 
Hierro Maldonado, J Ildefonso Amable, Gerardo Garcias llojas, Manuel Miranda, Jose' Lo- 
pez Ortigosa, General Santiago Blanco, Pablo Vergara, General Cayetano Montolla, Manuel 
Tejada. Urbano Tovar, Antonio Moran, Miguel Jimenez. 

Art. 2. The members of the Superior Junta, just named, shall enter upon the exercise 
of their functions immediately. 

Art. 3. The Emperor's minister is charged with the execution of this decree. 

Given at Mexico, June 18, 18i3. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, 8fc, fyc, fyc. 



No. 4. 
Dtci ee of the Junti of Government naming the persons who are to constitute the Executive 

MANUEL G ACULRRE, POLITICAL CHIEF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MEXICO, TO THE INHABITANTS 

THEREOF, GREETING I 

The Superior Junta of government has communicated to me the following decree : 

" The Superior Junta of government, installed in conformity with the decree of the 13th 
of the present month, proceeded, in its session of yesterday, to the election of the executive 
power provided for in the sixth article of the said decree, and the following persons were 
chosen : 

" First. His Excellency Senior Don Juan N. Almonte, general of division. 

_" Second. The most illustrious Senor Don Pelagio Antonio de Labastida, archbishop of 
Mexico. 

" Third. His Excellency Don Maiiano Salas, general of division. 

" First substitute, the most illustrious Sefior Dr. D. Juan B. de Ormaechea, bishop elect 
of Tularin go 

"Second substitute, his honor Don Ignacio Pavon, president of the supreme court of 
justice. 

"This election shall be published by national edict. 

"Given in the hall of the Junta at Mexico, June 22, 1863. 

"TEODOSIO LARES, President. 

" Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Secielary. 

"Jose Maria Andrade, Secretary." 

Wherefore, I order that it be printed, published, circulated, and have full authority given 
to it. 

MANUEL G. AGUIRRE. 
MANUEL AGUILAR Y LOPEZ, Mayor. 
Palace of the Political Government, 

Mexico, June 24, 1863. 



No. 5. 

Proclamation of General Forey in regard to the election of the Executive. 

Mexicans : The nation has declared its will by means of its repr. sentatives chosen accord- 
ing to my decree of June 16. 

General Almonte, the venerable archbishop of Mexico, and General Salas, were elected, 
the day before yesterday, by the Superior Junta, to take upon themselves the executive 
authority, and to direct the destinies of the country until the establishment of a permanent 
government. The names which I have mentioned are well known to you : they enjoy the 
public esteem and all the consideration due to distinguished services and high-toned char- 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 17 



258 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

acter. You can, then, rest satisfied, as I now do, with regard to the future which is to be 
prepared for you by this triumvirate, which will assume the reins of government from the 
24th of June. 

Mexicans: In placing in the hands if these three provisional chiefs of the nation the 
powers which circumstances have given me, in order to exercise them for your benefit, I 
desire to render you my thanks for the active and intelligent co-operation which I have 
met in you. I shall ever preserve a grateful remembrance of those relations which have 
caused me to appreciate, at their just value, your patriotism and your respect for order. 
which have made you so worthy of the interest of France and of the Emperor. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, &fc , Sfc. , S,-c 

Mexico, June 23, 1863. 



No 6. 
Manifesto of the Supreme Executive Power to the nation. 

Mexicans': Saving been appointed, by the superior committee of government, to exer- 
cise the supreme powers of the nation, it is right that we should instruct you of the very 
grave situation in which we find ourselves, and of our designs in fulfilling the mighty charge 
that we have received. 

Never was the Mexican nation seen with moie misfortunes nor with more solid hopes. 
A disciplined and courageous army, a great aDd civilized power, have undertaken to save 
us from the unfathomable abyss of evils to which, as blindly as impiously, a misled minor- 
ity of our countrymen have brought us. They labor for our national restoration not by 
the terror of arms, nor by anti-social principles. 

The force that comes to protect us will only be used to conquer that which persists in 
destroying us ; to the errors which have perverted us there will be opposed the truths that 
regenerate nations ; to the demoralization which has overturned everything there will be 
applied the justice which maintains the order of nations. 

We know how many sophisms and calumnies those who have persisted in our ruin have 
employed and employ to diffuse among you aversion or mistrust with respect to the inter- 
vention Compare their sophisms with the facts which you behold ; their calumnies with 
the conduct which is observed ; their insidious promises with the evidence of the disasters 
and desolation that you contemplate. Compare the d- eds with the words of the magnani- 
mous and enlightened Emperor : No hostility to the nation, and sufficient mildness even 
toward those who compromise it and tyrannize over it. 

Diiving from the capital the power which the pretended constitution of 1857 systematized 
in evil, by evil, and for evil, the representatives of the Emperor have made no delay in 
establishing the provisional Mexican government, which will govern until the nation, more 
amply represented, shall fix freely and definitively the form of government which Mexicans 
ought to have permanently. The chimeras of conquest with which it was attempted to 
alarm the thoughtless are made evident and vanish. Mexico has again self government, 
and is able and at liberty to choose, among all the political institutions, that which suits it 
'best, and has the most glorious titles and firmest guarantees of stability. 

In the mean time it is incumbent upon us to govern ad interim this suffering and dis- 
organized nation ; a task immensely arduous and complicated, and much superior to our 
.strength Can we, in our transitory administration, repair the disorders and injuries of half 
a century ? That which was founded by three centuries oi peace, and a gradual progress, is 
not restored in a few days ; we can only aspire to take the road and guide you in the first 
•steps. No doubt Divine Providence reserves to more competent persons the consummating 
•all the moral, social, political, and industrial restoration of Mexico. 

The work is grand, and will be the sooner iealiz. j d according as your co-operation is de- 
cided and general. We shall do veiy little if just men of all classes, parties, and ranks of 
>our -society do not aid our intentions in their respective spheres. 

W« heboid you vacillating and uncertain about the future of our beloved country, as de- 
jected with cares and anxieties, as fearful of new misfortunes, anxious for peace, and dis- 
trustful of provoking new wars ; ruined and panting for tranquillity to restore your fortunes, 
with aversion for the political and administrative theories which we have tried, and jealous 
of trying other new ones. Order and disorder, misery and prosperity, conciliation and 
discord, are at your choice. You have two powers in view — one whose long tyranny and bad 
passions you have so wofully experienced, and another whose measured and just behavior 
you are able to observe : the one which is not satisfied with all your treasures, nor with 
your most necessary furniture, and the other which commences by relieving you of taxes, 
and introducing the severest economy : the one which fled from this city without any other 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 259 

support than the faction whose illegitimate interests it foments, and the other which, solidly 
fixed in Europe, will lest upon the legitimate interest and cardinal principles of society : 
that, in short, which, sacrificing to personal interest, or that of party, all that was orderly, 
just, useful, respectable, and sacred, brought our country to wars, and this, which, by the 
light and unconquered force of Catholicism, according to the invincible rules of good gov- 
ernment, and supported by the bountiful protection of France, omitted nothing, that Mex- 
ico may rise in the New World as vigorous, enlightened, and improved as corresponds to 
the admirable abundance of her elements of prosperity. 

Very grave affairs are about to occupy our attention. Peace, which has its roots only in 
justice and well-defined liberty; agriculture, now so decayed, the basis of every kind of 
industry, and which for so long has been the common prey of revolutionists and highway- 
men ; commerce, so paralyzed and fallen, from the public insecurity in the country ; mining, 
a first-rate branch of industry, in decay from the prejudices and special burden which it has 
suffered ; the unmeasured exactions in the towns and the demoralization in agreements ; 
the arts either destroyed or impoverished ; the administration of justice, with some honor- 
able exceptions, so corrupt and tardy ; security on the highways or in the inhabited places 
altogether lost ; the vagrancy of all classes and ranks serving as a food for disorder and 
national depravation ; finally, the reparation of the moral and physical disasters made by 
the so-called system of liberty and reform, for which the two powers will co-operate together 
as far as concerns them, united or separate, and the tribunals in cases within their com- 
petency. 

The well-deserving army will likewise merit a preferable attention, and their sufferings 
will be taken into consideration, proceeding, without delay, to its leorganization. The 
worthy mutilated of the national independence will not be forgotten, nor less the suffering 
widows of the honored soldiers who have died in defence of their country. 

The Catholic religion is re-established and free. The church will exercise its authority 
without having an enemy in the government, and the state will concert with it the man- 
ner of resolving the grave questions which are pendant. 

The atheism which has been planted in the establishments of instruction, and the infa- 
mous propaganda of immoral doctrines which have ruined us, must cease. Catholic instruc- 
tion, solid and of the greatest possible extent, and new literary careers and guarantees for 
good teachers, will be the object of our labors. 

We have still to get rid of the so-called constitutional government, which is only able 
and only knows to do evil, which courts no good in its career of innovations and destruc- 
tion. Whilst it exists, wc Mexicans shall have no peace, nor our fortunes security, nor 
commerce increase The Franco-Mexican army will, as the first act they perform, pursue 
it until it surrenders or is driven from the national territory, and, in proportion as the 
towns shake off their intolerable yoke, they will begin to feel the repose and prosperity 
which the people already liberated enjoy. At the same time suitable measures will be dic- 
tated to expedite the pacification of the departments, and diminish the ruin which the 
agents of demagogism still occasion them. 

Our misdeeds, and the acts committed by terrorists against friendly nations, have dis- 
credited us in the Old World. Good and dignified relations will be opened again with in- 
jured governments and with the Sovereign Pontiff; every effort will be made to ratify the 
obligations of Mexico with friendly powers, and with the protection of France and the other 
nations that shall support the new government, we shall be respected abroad, and the honor 
and credit of tbe nation will be repaired. 

We have told you frankly what we think of the new situation, and what we intend to do 
in the difficult commission which we have received, in spite of our insufficiency Much 
will be done if eminent men of all kinds assist. Let our disgraceful discord at last end. 
Let the scandal which we have given to the world cease. Let there be concord, union, 
peace, and public spirit among us. Let the sordid speculations at public misfortunes be 
extirpated, and let those riches be turned to great- and lucrative industrial enterprises. Let 
honest labor be the foundation of fortunes ; let functionaries have no power over the laws, 
nor the laws over morality. Let religion and authority, property and liberty, order and 
peace, be at last precious realities for Mexicans. May the God of armies, who has so di- 
rectly favored our cause, reward the generosity and sincere intervention of France, and the 
patriotic intention with which we good Mexicans have accepted it, with the speedy gran- 
deur and prosperity of the nation. 

Palace of the supreme executive power in Mexico, the 24th of June, 1863. 

JUAN N. ALMONTE. 
JOSE MARIANO SALAS. 
JUAN B. ORMAECHEA. 



260 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



No. 7. 

Secretaryship of State and of the Office of Foreign Relations, 

Palace of the Supreme Executive Power, 

Mexico, July 11, 1863. 

The provisional supreme executive power has been pleased to address me the following 
decree : 

"The provisional supreme executive power of the nation to the inhabitants thereof. 
Know ye, that the Assembly of Notables has thought fit to decree as follows : 

" 'The Assembly of Notables, in virtue of the decree of the 16th ultimo, that it should 
make known the form of government which best suited the nation, in use of the full right 
which the nation has to constitute itself, and as its organ and interpreter, declares, with 
absolute liberty and independence, as follows : 

" ' 1. The Mexican nation adopts as its form of government a limited hereditary mon- 
archy, with a Catholic prince. 

" ' 2. The sovereign shall take the title of Emperor of Mexico. 

" ' 3. The imperial crown of Mexico is offered to his imperial and royal highness the 
Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, for himself and his descendants. 

" ' 4. If, under circumstances which cannot be foreseen, the Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand 
Maximilian, should not take possession of the throne which is offered to him, the Mexican 
nation relies on the good will of his Majesty Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to indi- 
cate for it another Catholic prince. 

" 'Given in the Hall of Sessions of the Assembly, on the 10th of July, 1863. 

"TEODOSIO LARES, President. 

" 'Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Secretary. 

" 'Jose Maria Andrade, Secretary.' 

"Therefore, let it be printed, published by national edict, and circulated, and let due 
fulfilment be given thereto. 

" Given at the palace of the supreme executive power in Mexico, ou the 11th of July, 1863. 

"JUAN N. ALMONTE. 

" JOSE" MARIANO SALAS. 

"JUAN B ORMAECHEA. 
"To the Under Secretary of State and of the Office of Foreign Relations." 

And I communicate it to you for your knowledge and consequent purposes. 

J. M. ARROYO, 
Under Secretary of Stale and of the Office of Foreign Relations. 



No. 8. 

Secretaryship of State and of the Office of Foreign Relations, 

Palace of the Supreme Executive Power, 

Mexico, July 11, 18G3. 
The provisional supreme executive power has been pleased to address me the following 
decree : 

"The provisional supreme executive power of the nation to the inhabitants thereof: 
Know ye that the Assembly of Notables has thought fit to decree as follows : 

'• ' The Assembly of Notables, in view of the decree of this date, has thought fit to decree : 
" ' Until the arrival of the sovereign the persons appointed, by decree of 22d of June 
last, to form the provisional government, shall exercise the power in the very terms estab- 
lished by the decree referred to, with the character of regency of the Mexican empire. 
'• 'Given in the Hall of Sessions of the Assembly on the 11th of July, 1863. 

" 'TEODOSIO LARES, Piesidml. 
" 'Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Secretary. 
• 'Jose Maria Andrade, Secretary.' 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 261 

"Therefore, let it be printed, published, and circulated, and let due fulfilment be given 
thereto. 

" Given at the palace of the supreme executive power in Mexico, on the 11th of July, 1863. 

"JUAN.N. ALMONTE. 

" JOSE" MAEIANO DE SALAS. 

"JUANB. ORMAECHEA. 
"To tbe Under Secretary of State and Foreign Eelations, Don Josfe Miguel Arroyo." 

And I communicate it to you for your knowledge and consequent purposes. 

J. M. ABEOYO, 
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Relations. 



No. 9. 

The offer of the crown. — Sthor Estrada's address to Maximilian. 

Prince : The powerful hand of a generous monarch had hardly restored liberty to the 
Mexican nation when he despatched us to your imperial highness, cherishing the sincerest 
wishes and warmest hopes for our mission. We shall not dwell upon the visitations 
Mexico has had to undergo, and which, as they are notorious, have reduced our country to 
the verge of despair and ruin. There is no means we have not employed, no way we have 
not tried, to escape a situation full of misery for the present and foreboding catastrophes 
for the future We have long endeavored to extricate ourselves from the fatal and ruinous 
position into which the country had fallen on adopting, with credulous inexperience, 
republican institutions, at variance with its natural arrangements, its customs and tradi- 
tions; institutions which, though they resulted in the greatness and prosperity of a 
neighboring nation, have only become a source of trials and desperate disappointments in 
our case. Nearly half a century, Prince, has elapsed, carrying with it for Mexico barren 
tortures and intolerable humiliation, but without deadening the spark of hope and 
indomitable vitality in our breast. Full of unshakable confidence in the Euler of human 
destinies, we never ceased to look out for a cure of our ever-growing national malady. We 
may say we awaited its advent true to ourselves. Our faith was not in vain. The ways 
of Providence have become manifest, openin gup a new era, and exciting the admiration 
of the greatest minds by an unexpected turn of fortune. 

Once again master of her destinies. Mexico, taught by experience, is at this moment 
making a last effort to correct her faults. She is changing her institutions, being firmly 
persuaded that those now selected will be even more salutary than the analogous arrange- 
ments which existed at the time she was the colony of a European state. This will be all 
the more certain if we should be destined to see at our head a Catholic Prince, who, with 
the high and recognized worth of his character, with the nobility of his feelings, knows 
how to couple that firmness of will and self-sacrificing devotion which are the inheritance 
of those only who have been selected by God Almighty in decisive moments of public 
danger and social ruin, to save sinking peoples and restore them to a new life. Mexico 
expects much from the spirit of those institutions which have governed it for three 
centuries, and which, when they fell, left us a brilliant, but, alas ! now spoiled inheritance. 
The democratic republic endeavored to do away with the traces of former grandeur. But 
whatever may be our confidence in such institutions, their efficiency will be only perfect 
when crowned in the person of your imperial highness. A king, the heir of an old 
monarchy, and representing solid institutions, may render his people happy, even in the 
absence of distinguished qualities of mind and character ; but very different and excep- 
tional qualities are required in a prince who intends to become the founder of a new 
dynasty and the heir of a republic. 

Without you, Prince — believe it from these lips which have never served the purposes 
of flattery — without you, all our efforts to save the country will'be in vain. Without you 
will not be realized the generous intentions of a great sovereign, whose sword restored us 
to liberty and whose powerful arm now supports us in this decisive hour. With you, 
however, experienced in the difficult art of government, our institutions would become 
what they ought to be, if the happiness and prosperity of our country are to be guaranteed. 
With you they would have for their foundation that genuine liberty which is coupled with 
justice and moderation — not the spurious counterfeit we have become conversant with 
during half a century's ruinous wars and quarrels. Such institutions, equally as they are 
in harmony with the spirit of the age, will also become the unshakable corner-stone of our 
national independence. These sentiments, these hopes, which have been long entertained 
by all true friends of Mexico, are now in the hearts of all in our country. In Europe, too, 
whatever sympathies or antipathies may have been roused on the occasion of our present 



262 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

step, there is only one voice in regard to your imperial highness and your noble consort, 
who. shining by personal worth and high virtues, will share your throne and rule over 
our hearts. The Mexicans require only to see you in order to love you 

Faithful interpreters of the longing desire and the wishes of our country, in its name we 
offer to your imperial highness the crown of Mexico — that crown which a solemn resolution 
of the Assembly of Notables has of its free will and accord handed over to your imperial 
highness. Even now that resolution has been confirmed by the assent of many provinces, 
and will soon be sanctioned by the entire nation. Nor can we forget, Prince, that by a 
fortunate coincidence of circumstances this great national act is taking place on the day 
on which Mexico celebrates the anniversary of the victorious appearance of the national 
army, carrying high the banner of independence and monarchy. May it please your 
imperial highness to fulfil our prayers and accept our choice. May we be enabled to carry 
the joyous tidings to a country awaiting them in longing anxiety ; joyous tidings not only 
for us Mexicans, but also for France, whose name is now indissolubly bound up with our 
history, and gratitude for England and Spain who began the work of revival, and for the 
illustrious house of Austria, connected by time-honored and glorious memories with anew 
continent. 

We do not undervalue the sacrifice to be inside by your imperial highness in entering 
upon so great a task with all its consequences, and in severing yourself from your friends 
in Europe — that quarter of the globe which, from its centre, diffuses civilization over the 
world. Yes, Prince, this crown which our love offers you is but a heavy burden to-day, 
but it will soon be made enviable by your virtues, our zealous cooperation, our loyal 
devotion and inextinguishable gratitude. Whatever may bd our faults, however deep our 
fall, we are still the sons of those who, inspired by the sacred names of religion, king, and 
country, hesitated not to run the greatest lisks, engage in the grandest enterprises, combat 
and suffer in their course. These are the sentiments which, in the name of our grateful 
country, we lay at the feet of your imperial highness We offer them to the worthy scion 
of that powerful dyuasty which planted Christianity on our native soil. On that soil, 
Prince, we hope to see you fulfil a high task, to mature the choicest fruits of culture, 
which are order and true liberty. The task is great, but greater is our confidence in 
Providence, which has led us thus far. 



No. 10. 
Reply of the Archduke Maximilian, on the 3d of Oclober, 1863, to the Mexican deputation. 

" I am profoundly grateful for the wishes expressed by the Assembly of Notables. 

" It cannot be other than flattering to our house that the thoughts of your countrymen 
turn to the descendants of Charles V. 

" It is a proud tisk to assure the independence and the prosperity of Mexico under the 
protection of free and lasting institutions. I must, however, recognize the fact — and in 
this I entirely agree with the Emperor of the French, whose glorious undertaking makes 
the regeneration of Mexico possible— that the monarchy cannot be re established in your 
country on a firm and legitimate basis unless the whole nation shall confirm by a free man- 
ifestation of its will the wishes of the capital. 

" My acceptance of the offered throne must, therefore, depend upon the result of the 
vote of the whole country. 

" Further, a sentiment of the most sacred of the duties of the sovereign requires that he 
should demand for the proposed empire every necessary guarantee to secure it against the 
dangers which threaten its integrity and its independence 

"If substantial guarantees for the future can be obtained, and if the universal suffrage 
of the noble Mexican people select me as its choice, I shall be ready, with the consent of 
the illustrious chief of my family, and trusting to the protection of the Almighty, to accept 
the throne. 

" It is my duty to announce to you now, gentlemen, that in case Providence shall call 
me to the high mission of civilization which is attached to this crown, it is my fixed in- 
tention to open to your country, by means of a constitutional government, a pith to a 
progress based on order and civilization, and, ns soon as the empite shall be completely 
pacified, to seal with my oath the fundamental agreement concluded with the nation. 

"It is only in this manner that a truly national policy can hi established, in which all 
parties, forgetting their ancient quarrels, will unite to raise Mexico to the high rank which 
she should attain under a government whose first principle will be law based on equity. 

"I beg of you to communicate these my intentions, frankly expressed, to your country- 
men, and to take measures to obtain from the uation an expression of its will as to the 
form of government it intends to adopt." 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 263 



No. 11. 
Note addressed by the government of the republic to the governments of friendly powers. 

National Palace, San Luis Potosi, July 22, 1863. 
To His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of : 

The undersigned, minister of foreign affairs of the republic of Mexico, has the honor of 
addressing himself to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs of , with refer- 
ence to the events which have lately taken place in the city of Mexico. 

The undersigned has to commence by stating to his excellency the minister that the 
president, having become convinced that policy did not dictate a resistance to the invader 
in the former capital, ordered that the supreme powers of the federation should be trans- 
ferred to this city. This decree was executed a few days after its publication, after the 
national congress had terminated its sessions by the expiration of the period of its second term. 

Some days later, not only the president, invested with extraordinary powers by congress, 
but also the permanent deputation of congress which subsists during the recess of that 
body, and finally the supreme court of justice, which completes the personnel of the supreme 
powers of the country, weie established in the new capital, where they discharge with 
perfect regulaiity the attiibutes conferred upon them by our organic law. 

The government of the republic in all its branches receives, as is natural and due, the 
recognition and the obedience of the nation, excepting only the few places which the army 
of France hold subject and oppressed. But the power arrogated by the invader of our soil 
is so limited and so uncertain in its tenure, besides being so odious and so strongly resisted, 
that there is not held by him a single foot of ground not controlled by his military posts. 
However near to these other towns may be. they obey — the same as all the rest of the 
nation — the authorities which Mexico, in the exeicise of its sovereignty, and by the free 
vote of its citizens, has thought proper to place at the head of its internal administration. 
In fine, even the line from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, the line which should be certain 
and secure to the enemy's army, is incessantly cut by the national troops. 

But even if this line were not and should not be disputed by our forces, and although 
the French should succeed in executing their plan — which has transpired — of extending the 
influence of their arms to the radius of twenty leigues from the city of Mexico, there would 
even then have been conquered by their forces only a mere fraction of the republic, (a 
portion incompar-ibly less than that which reruains,) and which, animated by a sense of 
right and a consciousness of strength, is resolved not only to continue to resist the foreign 
invader, but to recover those portions where the legal order has been interrupted by the 
momeutary triumph of force over justice and right, over patriotism the most noble, and 
over courage itself 

Such being the actual condition of affairs, it is difficult for the undersigned properly to 
qualify the act which has just been committed in the former capital of the republic by the 
general in chief of the invading army. Immediately upon the occupation of the city of 
Mexico he has thought that the hour had arrived to announce that the government of the 
federation had been destroyed and annihilated. He therefore proceeded to name thirty- 
five individuals, in order that they, in their turn, should elect a triumvirate who should be 
charged with the executive power, and should also name two hundred and fifteen other 
persons who, with the title of " notables," should be intrusted with authority to determine 
the form of our government. Pronouncing themselves in favor of a monarchy, they selected 
for emperor his royal highness the Prince Maximilian of Austiia, and declared that the 
provisional government should take the name of regency. 

Considering these acts in their true light, and deducing from them their only practical 
and effective consequences, it results that there is in the city of Mexico a combination of 
three persons, called triumvirs, and now members of a regency ; and that there is a prince 
who has been called to reign over Mexico as emperor by two hundred and fifteen individuals, 
seconded, at most, by only the places occupied by the troops of the Emperor Napoleon. 
But as the entire party resigned to accept the foreign prince whom the invader is so anxious 
to give us only embraces the inhabitants dominated by the French army and a few impotent 
and fugitive bands, and as all this lacks very greatly of even approaching to be a majority 
of the people of the country, who, as a matter of fact, adhere to the constitutional 
government, it follows logically that the empire and the regency do not constitute a govern- 
ment de facto, nor prove anything more than a desire and an attempt to establish such a 
government In fine, so long as the orders of the government of Mexico are respected and 
obeyed throughout almost the entire nation, that is the supreme authority which inter- 



264 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

national law teaches should be recognized, independent of its other legitimate titles, under 
the presumption that a state accepts, or at least tolerates, that government which it obeys 
without resistance. 

Coming to the question of right, the undei signed finds a source of embarrassment in its 
discussion from the abundance of the reasons which demonstrate the justice with which the 
Mexican people reject the bastard and despicable government which General Forey seeks to 
impose upon them 

The undersigned even fears that it may be considered an undue yielding to force to 
attempt the formal proof of a thing so clear and self-evident. But he feels it his duty to 
conform to the usage of civilized nations, and, by complying loyally with the sacred obliga- 
tion imposed upon him by the vote and th« confidence of the republic, provide for its 
defence by all the legitimate and proper means that may be within his reach. 

The Emperor of the French, violating the most sacred and important of the restrictions 
with which civilization has tempered the right of war, has declared it against Mexico, and 
is making it solely on account of a miserable debt, whose payment has been offered to him, 
and for certain other causes equally destitute of consistency and of justice, such as the 
reclamation of Jecker, which has no existence, except at his hands, the mere enunciation 
of which causes has filled the world with astonishment. 

Hostilities have been opened without waiting for the refusal of such satisfaction as might 
with justice be demanded of us, and only once have his agents treated of negotiations, 
and that was to infringe and to prove false to the stipulations of Soledad, exchanging thereby 
the unhealthy positions of their forces for others moie salubrious and more advanced. The 
Emperor and his agents have not sought to obtaiu reparation through peace, nor have they 
made war upon Mexico to obtain it. Their true design, well known even before the 
government of France had lifted the veil with which it was covered — the design which for 
a long time had been openly spoken of and discussed by the politicians and the journals of 
Europe — was to overthrow republican institutions in Mexico, to destroy its government, 
and to raise a thione for the Prince Maximilian of Austria. 

It is for this reason that the agents of the Emperor have declared that they would never 
treat with the president, which is equivalent to saying that peace should never be made ; 
for the president, not having obtained his position through force or fraud, as have so many 
ambitious men in ancient and modern times, but by the free vote of his fellow-citizens, 
can neither reject the confidence which they have bestowed upon him, by violating his 
most sacred duties and obligations and abandoning his post in the day of peril for the 
republic, nor can they consent that the chief magistrate chaiged by them with the func- 
tions of government and with the duty of representing its sovereignty abroad should be 
removed from power to please a foreign enemy 7 , even if that should be the sole condition 
required for the re-establishment of those friendly relations which have been interrupted. 

As all of the events of a political character which have occuried in the city of Mexico 
have taken place and aie sustained solely by the direction of General Forey, and as from 
the very nature of these events it is not possible to ascribe them to any other origin or 
support, it follows that France, by means of force, is intervening to the extent of her power 
in the administration and government of Mexico, and has therefore again inaugurated that 
unhappy era which it had been the glory of the nineteenth century to have terminated ; 
for war will be full of iniquity and of interminable disasters to the nations when the pmwr 
of one over the others shall have no longer the restraints of international right 

The French government, in the blindness of its ambitious designs, has forgotten that 
this pretended right of inteivention was once applitd to Fiance, although to the present 
imperial family this memoiy should be indelible. 

If national sovereignty is the basis upon which rest the rights of mankind, it is easy to 
see how great and piofound, how alarming for all the states of the globe, is this outrage 
which is bein-i done to Mexico by the Emperor Napoleon III 

The undersigned will now descend to refer to the acts which the general of the invading 
army and his adherents have had the boldness to piesent as sufficient titles to attribute to 
their mock government a character of true nationality. They assert that the place where 
the empire was proclaimed has the virtue cf legalizing that act both within and without 
the republic. 

General Forey, after having occupied the city of Mt xico, announced that the military 
question had teimiuated, and that they had now to decide the political question. But the 
truth is that the military question is scarcely commenced, and that the political question is 
very far from having been opened, much less cl< Bed, by the election of a monarch in that 
city. The city of Mexico is without doubt a very important place for us; but it by no 
means has the importance and influence which in sonic other countries is exercised by the 
capital. The Mexican people made war upon Spain with vigor and with success, notwith- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 265 

standing the city of Mexico remained up to the last moment submissive to the colonial 
government ; and later, when the insurrectionary party held the same city, with many 
others, it was only at the end of a three-years' war that they could be driven out of all Iry 
the irresistible uprising of the nation. 

The consciousness of right, and the determination to sacrifice everything in the defence 
of our liberties, are sentiments diffused throughout the utmost bounds of the republic, and 
one or many cities lost cannot weaken our resolution, as it will not diminish the justice of 
our cause, or lessen the immense value of the objects we are defending. 

It is in vain that they talk of a pretended right upon which they seek to found the 
•appointment of the notables In truth, even if a custom by which necessity or abuse has 
established among us certain governments, merely provisional, could be applicable at the 
time when there was a government obeyed and respected throughout all the land, and 
even admitting a compromise between these governments and that permanent one which 
the new notables imagined they could create, it would still be evident that such a custom, 
whether good or bad, has not been, nor can it ever be, accepted in the contingency of being 
invoked and used by the general of the foreign army, an invader of the country. 

The organic law of Mexico, however, does not exist in abolished customs, but in the 
lawful constitution of the country, framed by its legitimate representatives and sustained 
and defended by the will and by the blnod of the Mexican people Her sovereignty, the 
same as that of all the nations, has for its first basis the right of Mexico to manage freely 
and alone her own government And what species of public right is that which commences 
by depriving of the equality of citizens the Indians, who form the majority of the nation? 

It has been even said that the intervention has in its favor the wishes of a majority of 
the Mexicans ; but the demonstrations of joy extorted by the police in the city of Mexico, 
•and at other points which the enemy holds in his power, irpon which alone this assertion 
is based, offer any appearance rather than that of a spontaneous and universal adhesion. 
Nor can the undersigned do more than lefer to the other boasted proof of sympathy for 
the intervention taken from the numbers present at a ball given in Mexico by the officers 
of the French army. Treason, which has declared itself in Mexico, is, withoirt doubt, a 
horrible crime ; but it is not peculiar to the Mexican people, as is proved by history, and 
very especially by that of France ; and neither here more than there does it justify, in any 
manner, the invasion of a state and the annihilation of its sovereignty. 

It also iippears very clear to the undersigned that to constantly repeat, as the French 
government and its agents have repeated, that they only desire to make us happy, is not 
to advance in the light of those sound principles, which certainly cannot be abolished by a 
phrase which any ambitious government can use, and, in fact, which has been used with 
eager readiness in the most iniquitous wars. Nor can it be seriously maintained that any 
■one can by force be obliged to receive a benefit. 

In one word, Mr. Minister, the intervention which the Emperor of the French is exer- 
cising in this country involves not only an immeasurable outrage to Mexico, but a menace 
against all other nations, while, with reference to the leality of events, it has in fact only 
reached the point of being a humiliation imposed by the French army upon the few towns 
which have fallen in their power, and remains a pure phantasy fur the immense majority 
of the republic 

The republic has not forgotten the heroism of its sons who, without other aid than their 
•own efforts, achieved its independence and gave it the right to inscribe its name upon the 
honored catalogue of free nations. The defence of Puebla de Zaragoza is demonstrating to 
the world that our race has not degenerated, although the contrary was said when they 
were preparing against us this most unjust war. 

We shall preserve our institutions in all their force, and the spirit of the nation will rise 
more and more with the passage of each day, and become more determined in its opposition 
and inextinguishable in its hatred against the enemies of its repose and the destroyers of 
its rights. 

The men who have violated in the most flagrant manner the law of nations, in contriving 
pretexts for this war, in the employment of their means of hostilities, and in setting forth 
with falsehood its ends, concealing the truth, and which ends are in all points unjustifiable ; 
the men who have conspired to rob the country of its sovereignty and to overthrow its free 
institutions ; the men who have caused our soldiers to be murdered when prisoners and 
dropping with fatigue, and have forced them to hard labor in deadly climates, or to take 
arms in their ranks to fight against the cause of their country ; the men who have stripped 
from the faithful servants of the government of the nation their property ; those who have 
caused the assassination of a commander of an escort guarding a foreign consul ; the men 
who have thoirght to degrade the majority of our fellow-citizens, declaring them pariahs in 
the land of their birth, which has been enriched by the blood their fathers shed in achieving 



266 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

its independence, and by their own shed in the long struggle to establish it free ; the men, 
in fine, who have re-established the odious and abolished punishment of the lash, even for 
feeble women— these men never can have the love, never will receive even the tolerance, 
of the Mexican people, who refused, to accept for their emperor even their liberator himself. 

The undersigned persuades himself that these facts and these considerations will be 
sufficient to lead, the government of your excellency to ar prove the protest which the 
government of Mexico makes, by means of this note, against whatever arrangement, treaty, 
or convention in which the so-called regency or the supposititious emperor of Mexico shall 
have pait ; and the government of the undersigned trusts that the enlightened government 
of your excellency will not recognize the said regency or empire as the government of 
Mexico, as it is not, with truth, either in fact or of right. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to offer to your excellency the assurances 
of his high consideration. 

JUAN ANTONIO DE LA FUENTE. 



No. 12. 
Protest of the Permanent Deputation of the Congress of the nation. 

The permanent deputation of the sovereign congress of the united Mexican States would 
fail in one of the most eminent and sacred of its duties, if it should maintain a criminal 
silence in view of the infamous and scandalous events which have recently taken place in 
the city of Mexico. 

The nation has been outraged in all its rights. The most sacred principles of justice, of 
reason, and of morals have been mocked at and trampled upon under the shadow of the 
ephemeral power of foreign soldiers — soldiers who have not known how to conquer, and 
who have failed to humiliate the heroic republicans who defended the walls of Puebla de 
Zaragoza. Joined to these, a faction of traitors and cowards, a thousand times conquered 
in our intestine struggles ; of cruel fanatics, who, safe from peril themselves, decree the 
death of the most loyal patriots ; a faction of miserable egotists, who sacrifice everything 
to their love of gain ; of degraded adventurers, the scum of all the parties in our civil 
wars, have pretended to despoil the nation, and forever, of the most glorious of the titles 
of a name engraven in the history of its independence, won and preserved by the blood 
of its best citizens, of its institutions the most cherished, and of its liberties the most 
precious. 

And this small faction of abject and imbecile beings, who to-day adulate and serve the 
foreign power, and to-morrow will I e the objects of its utmost disdain and contempt, never 
tire of repeating to us. with the same flagrant duplicity that has always characterized their 
language, that Louis Napoleon, generous and benevolent, without ulterior views without 
ulterior design, without, illegitimate interests, has caused his soldiers to cross the ocean, at 
the cost of enormous expense to the treasury < f France, solely to comply with a pious and 
benevolent mission, solely to give us peace, liberty, all those bent tits which constitute the 
happiness of a people, and to leave us free to enjoy in tranquillity these great benefits, with- 
out reproach to our honor, without sacrifice to our integrity, and without offence, even the 
slightest, to our national existence. 

The foreign general, associating himself with feigned generosity with this perfidious 
faction of traitors, has repeated these treacherous words, which, incoherent and inexpli- 
cable as they are, have not required the evidence of the events which have occurred to 
prove their falsehood. 

To declare himself triumphant and the victor, after he ha 1 occupied, without other re- 
sistance than that of Puebla de Zaragoza, two or three cities, abandoned from motives of 
policy, in a country possessed of an immense extent of territory ; to assume that the mili- 
tary line of Vera Cruz to Mexico, incessantly attacked by the national forces, and upon 
which the invader holds no more than the soil upon which he stands, is equivalent to the 
conquest of eight millions of inhabitants, the great majority of whom were born and have 
lived free from the dominion of a foreign yoke : to assume to domineer over th s country 
under such a title, and immediately to attempt to impose upon it laws and to name public 
functionaries; to appoint a committee of government, without other representation than 
the will of the self-styled conqueror, and to order it to elect another committee of to-called 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 267 

notables, all residents of one single town, clothed by him with authority to pronounce in 
an oracular manner what should be the form of government which it is the will of Mexico 
to have ; for this committee to respond that the absurd and fantastic plan, preconceived 
and contrived in the Tuileries more than two years ago, is equivalent, quite equivalent, to 
the free vote of the nation, and that, of their free and spontaneous will, the Mexican people 
wish to place themselves under the monarchical system, calling for that purpose a foreign 
prince, a stranger, without ties, without antecedents, and without a knowledge of the 
country — all this, and still more, which the traitorous faction have wished to do, in testi- 
mony of their submission and blind obedience to the most iniquitous of invaders, supplant- 
ing the truth, lying in the face of the civilization of the age, and covering the country with 
opprobrium and reproach, is a gross tissue of absurdities and marvels, such as no history 
has recorded, and which would be unworthy of all credit if they were not inscribed in irref- 
ragable documents. 

Thus do they pretend that a nation can, with easy facility, abdicate its most precious 
prerogatives — that a state, a moral entity, distinct and independent of all other states, can 
transmit to another the right of establishing, of changing, or of abolishing the form and 
character of its government ; thus it is pretended in this nineteenth century to obliterate 
and destroy the autonomy of a people ; and thus it is hoped that the Mexicans, strong and 
numerous, and with the same right to be free as the most prosperous nation of the world, 
shall disown their political being, shall forget their most sacred traditions, lay aside their 
most established habits, shall outrage the memory of their greatest sons, and, cowards and 
ingrates. voluntarily consent to this shameful and humiliating intervention which conceals 
and covers up its true ends ; which is founded in no legitimate motive ; which has been 
born of allied cupidity, through falsehood, calumny, and treason ; which invades even the 
domestic hearth, under the pretext of allotment of brutal soldiers ; which sequestrates and 
embargoes private property, and which heaps the infamy of its odious lash upon the 
shoulders of feeble men and of un protect d women. 

However often the traitors may repeat it, kissing the yoke that is imposed upon them, 
foreign intervention is not compatible, is never compatible, with the sovereignty of the 
nation. This right is complete, absolute, inalienable, and exclusive ; it cannot be ceded 
nor transferred, nor given in exchange, nor held in partneiship. Every sovereign nation, 
whatever may be its political form, governs of itself alone, and independent of any foreign 
control. A sovereignty, limited, modified, protected, placed in tutelage, sustained by foreign 
influence or by foreign arms, cannot be free, cannot live a natural life, and can have no 
other existence than that given to it by the power upon which it leans ; and when, before 
the occupation by the French arms, not even one single spontaneous manifestation was heard 
in favor of foreign intervention, and when, in the very districts now occupied, only insig- 
nificant villages and persons of obscure position have declaied in favor of this national ig- 
nominy ; when nine-tenths of the Mexican peop'e still remain under the rule of the national 
and legitimate authority, and multitudes of pacific families have abandoned their hearths- 
and their connexions, in order not to remain in contact with the foreign enemy, and the. 
valiant soldiers who fell in their power on the occupation of Puebla escape from their ranks, 
in order to reunite themselves to the national at my — when so many explicit manifestations, 
prove the invincible repugnance with which the invading force is viewed, yet, in the face 
of all this, in the capital of the republic has been improvised a phantom of government, 
which, from its bastard origin, from having at its head the first of traitors, has not and 
cannot possess either dignity or power, which is only sustained by the bayonets of France, 
and which has no other mission than that of strutting its little brief period of triumph, 
sterile and in vain, because it has no foundation in public opinion, and is neither based 
upon nor supported by the will of the nation, which is already inaugurating a new era in 
this struggle, which will be more obstinate and more bloody than any which Mexico has 
before sustained against her invaders. 

fhe permanent deputation, in the name of the congress of the union, and as the faithful 
interpreters of the national sentiment, so energetically and universally manifested, believes 
that it fulfils a most solemn obligation in reproducing, as by these presents it does repro- 
duce, all the declarations and protests before made by the sovereign congress itself, by the 
executive, and by the other legitimate and loyal authorities of the country — declarations 
which disavow and declare null and of no effect, as against the sovereignty of the Mexican 
people, and without force or legal value, all acts done or which may be done by virtue of 
the power or under the influence of the foreign invader ; and it declares that, in the con- 
stitutional orbit of its functions, remaining always at the side of the government which the 
nation, in the exercise of its sovereign will, manifested in conformity with its organic law, 
has freely established, until the next session of the national assembly shall take place, it 
will co-operate, with all the energy and self-devotion inspired by patriotism, in repelling 



268 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

force by force, and in using every means to disconcert and defeat the machinations of treason 
and of conquest, in order to maintain secure the independence, the sovereignty, the laws, 
and the perfect freedom of the republic 

FRANCISCO ZARCO, President. 

JOAQUIN M. ALCALDE. 

PONCIANO ARRIAGA. 

BARTOLOME E. ALMADA. 

JESUS CASTANEDA. 

PEDRO CONTREKAS ELIZALDE. 

JOSE DIAS CORAM WAS. 

FRANCISCO P. GOCHICOA. 

SEBASTIAN LERDO DE TEJADA. 

GENARO I. LEYVA. 

IGNACIO OROZCO. 

G. PRIETO. 

MANUEL POSADA. 

FELIX VEGA. 
Ignacio Pombo, Deputy Secretary. 
Simon de la Garza y Melo, Deputy Stcrdary. 

San Luis Potosi, July 22, 1863. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United State* of America, 

Washington, Fchruary 24, 1SG4. 

Mr. Secretary : As further proo fof the injustice and impropriety which, 
with such foundation, are attributed to the intervention which the French Em- 
peror is pretending to establish in the Mexican republic by the statesmen and 
political writers of France, despite the many restrictions which hold the press 
enchained in that empire, I have the honor to enclose with this note, for the 
information of the government of the United States, a translation into English 
of an important pamphlet published lately in Paris, under the title of " Solution 
of the Mexican Question," by Mr. A. Malespine, editor of L'Opinion Nationale. 

The statements and deductions contained in that pamphlet respecting the 
policy pursued in Mexico by the imperial government are of such nature that I 
think it proper to commend them to the consideration of the government of the 
United States. 

I avail of this occasion to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. KOMEFvO. 



SOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION. 
By A. M.M.KsnxK. 

I. 

CAUSES 01' THE lltK.WII INTERVENTION. 

It seems, in the first place, needless to look back to the causes which led to the French 
intervention in Mexico. The wrongs done to our fellow-countrymen in person and property 
have been many, and even the government « > i" Juarez admits in principle the justice of our 
demands. He disputes, however, the amount of the indemnity claimed, and complains 
that he is charged with not only the material responsibility, but also the moral responsi- 
bility, of crimes done by his political adversaries. 



R I 




tpa- 
•om 
lent 
ired 
. the 
)e just for us, 
"rations which 



a despatch of 

of two kinds i 
3l f . As to the 
I be instituted 
s decisions an 
anient will in- 
igitimate." 
ly diminish the 
bt that Juarez 
f they had been 



.tnralized until by 
rnment of Miramon 



mia, a T)oi \"H 18 




MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 269 

The contested indemnities are those which are named in Article 1 and in Article 3 of 
the ultimatum laid down by the plenipotentiaries of Frauce. These articles are thus stated : 
"Article 1. Mexico engages to pay to France a sum of $12,000,000, at which the whole of 
the French reclamations are valued, rating the various wrongs up to the 31st of July last, 
1861, and exclusive of the exceptions stipulated in Articles 2 and 4, hereinafter stated, 
and which relate to what has happened since the 31st of July last, for which a special re- 
serve is made. The amount of the reclamations against Mexico which may spring from 
these causes will be fixed at a later i eriod by the plenipotentiaries of France." 

"Article 3. Mexico will be held to the full, faithful, and immediate fulfilment of the 
contract undertaken in the month of February, 1859, between the Mexican government 
and the house of Jecker." 

The first figure of twelve millions of dollars has seemed, in fact, excessive, for the whole 
number of Frenchmen permanent residents of Mexico does not exceed, according to the 
latest official documents, 2,048. The demand for the entire and instant execution of the 
contract made between Miramon and the house of Jecker, reaching the large sum of 
$15,000,000, has also been judged to be too rigorous 

These two demands gave rise in the beginning of the expedition to a first disagreement 
between the plenipotentiaries of France, of England, and of Spain. 

As soon as Earl Russell was informed of the nature of the French reclamations by Sir 
Charles Wycke, he wrote to Lord Cowley, the English ambassador at Paris : 

" It is surely not possible that reclamations so excessive as that of $12,000,000 in mass and 
without detailed account, and that of $15,000,000 for $750,000 received, can have been 
made with the hope of their being entertained." 

M. Thouvenal hastened, by a despatch addressed to M. Dubois de Saligny, the 28th of 
February, 1862, to soften the too absolute nature of these demands. He wrote as follows: 
"The figure at which this department felt itself obliged to value our reclamations did 
not reach that fixed by your Article No. 1 ; but, in the absence of sufficient elements of 
valuation, a great latitude is now left to you on this subject. While, therefore, I do not 
expressly ask you to reduce a sum which Sir Charles Wycke and General Prim both seem to 
have thought exorbitant, you may, nevertheless, be less exacting on this point if it prove 
too evident a cause of difference between the representatives of the three courts." 

M. Thouvenal was further of opinion that if France still insisted on a large sum of in- 
demnity, it was no loDger necessary to exact reparation of another kind, whether for the 
death of the French consul at Tepic, or for the attempts upon the person of M. Dubois de 
Saligny in the month of August, 1861. 

So far as the Jecker affair was concerned, M. Thouvenel declared that there was a dis- 
tinction to be drawn between what immediately concerned our interests and what was 
foreign to them. At the time when the Jecker contract was signed the minister of France 
to Mexico had informed the French government that foreign commerce would be greatly 
relieved by this financial measure. It was only in this view that the French government 
insisted on its execution. But the question would be treated very differently if the house 
of Jecker" was to be alone, or almost alone, benefited by the fulfilment of the contract. 

" I call your attention," said M. Thouvenel, " in conclusion, to the importance of sepa- 
rating in this affair all that may really affect interests which it is our duty to protect from 
what may affect other interests of a wholly 'different character. The actual government 
(the government of Juarez) cannot assume to deprive our countrymen of advantages assured 
to them by a regular measure passed by the administration of General Miramon for the 
single reason that this measure emanated from an enemy ; but it would not be just for us, 
on the other hand, to impose upon the actual government (upon Juarez) obligations which 
do not necessarily flow from his governmental responsibility." 

Finally, M. Drouyn de L'huys expressed himself in the following terms in a despatch of 
the 17th of August, 1863, addressed to General Bazaine : 

"I have spoken of our reclamations. They are, as you are aware, general, of two kinds i 
those which are anterior to the war, and those which spring from the waritseF. As to the 
fir ? t, they are all referred to the examination of a commission, which will be instituted 
in my department, and which will be organized in a manner to secure to its decisions an 
indisputable authority. The total amount to present to the Mexican government will in- 
clude all the reclamations which shall be recognized by the commission as legitimate." 

The despatches of M. Thouvenal and of M. Drouyn de L'huys materially diminish the 
ultimatum given to Juarez by M. Dubois de Saligny; and there'is no doubt that Juarez 
would have instantly received and acted upon the reclamations of France if they had been 
thus presented in the beginning. 

*To this it may be objected that M. Jecker is to-day a French citizen; but he was not naturalized until by 
the decree of the 20th of March, 1862, while the contract signed between him and the government of Miramon, 
was dated the 29th of October, 1859. 



270 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

But these suudry pecuniary reclamations were not the only cause of intervention. France 
seeks redress for other wrongs which are the result of the state of anarchy in Mexico for 
the last forty years Many of our countrymen have been attacked, robbed, murdered, 
and no rep iration has ever been obtained, not even the punishment of the guilty. Be it 
always understood, however, that when the time arrived for general expiation in 1861, the 
crimes of all the governments and pretenders who, during the last twelve or fifteen years, 
have disputed the reins of power, were unjustly ascribed to Juarez and his partisans. 

SOCIAL STATE OF MEXICO. — ORIGIN OF THE CIIL'RCII PARTY. 

It is necessary to go back further than fifteen years, and even more than a century, to 
attain a fair, impartial understanding of the social state of Mexico. Mexico had not, like 
the United States, the good fortune to be colonized by intelligent and laborious men, who 
60ught in a new land an asylum from persecution. Like all other Spanish colonies, it has 
been given up to debauched and quarrelsome invaders, who disdained any other occupation 
than war, and who sought in America a people to persecute at their leisure. 

Wherever Spain planted her flag she established a licentious despotism ; she degraded 
labor by favoring with all her power the introduction and increase of black slaves ; her 
greatest cue was to keep all ranks in ignorance and superstition ; she intrusted education 
only to the clergy, and charged the inquisition to watch over the publication of books ; 
lastly, she thought to retain a perpetual hold on ber colonies by isolating them from the 
rest of mankind, and by forbidding to her colonial subjects all direct commerce with foreign 
nations 

Populations thus governed could have neither domestic nor social virtues, and if some 
Mexican Creoles had not found means toward the close of the 18th century to visit Europe 
secretly, the struggle for independence would have been delayed until our day. These 
hardy travellers were imbued with the teachings of Voltaire and of Rousseau, and under- 
took, immediately on their return to their country, a propagande. They were burned, just 
as they would have been in the middle ages. But the first seeds were sown, and they so 
fructified, that in less than a quarter of a century all the Spanish colonies had conquered 
their independence. Yet this emancipation was not the result of a well-studied or under- 
stood need, and in Mexico even more than elsewhere it was exclusively the work of some 
leading minds. It did not bring any essential change in manners, nor dissipate all preju- 
dice. Property was not divided, and the new clergy had neither less ambition than the 
old, nor less influence on the spirit of the people. It formed of the remnant of the priv- 
ileged classes a party which, having on its side the wealth of the country and the religious 
influence, was, in fact, the most powerful of all those which partitioned out Mexico among 
themselves. 

This party, which was then designated by the name of the Spanish church party, and 
which is known to-day as the reactionist or conservative, gradually prepared the way for a 
return of Mexico to the Spanish rule, and when it failed in all its efforts, endeavored to 
establish an independent monarchy, and looked to France to aid it to accomplish this object. 
Their proposals were rejected, but they would not give up the field, and shrank from no 
means to render intervention inevitable. 

lu 1888 took place the unfortunate expedition commanded by Admiral Baudin. The 
causes of this expedition are frankly set forth in a book by MM. Blanchard, Dauzats & 
Mai.-sin, published in 1839, by order of the French government, under the auspices of 
Baron Tupinier, then minister of the marine: 

" It is known that it is to the clerical party that the differences which have arisen be- 
tween France and Mexico must be attributed This party wishes to bring back Mexico to 
monarchical rule, and has pushed it to a war with us in order to arrive at this end. Since 
the Algerian expedition, we are supposed to fear distant expeditious and foreign conquests. 
It is well known that the Algerian affair has disgusted us with the role of dupe. It is less 
known in Mexico than anywhere else. The priest party thought that by injustice, insult, 
and outrage, it would bring France to undertake the conquest of the Mexican republic, and 
that a monarchy would then be established. Franco seemed better suited than any other 
nation to carry out this vast design. Her humor is warlike. She chafes under injustice, 
even though its redress would involve a greater injury." 

It is curious to compare these lines, written in 1839, with the following extract from 
"The London Times," of May 27, 1862, twenty years later, and five months after the be- 
ginning of the present intervention : 

" We now understand the origin of the whole affair. The monarchy, with Archduke 
Maximilian fur Emperor, was the idea of cei tain Mexican refugees, members of the reaction- 
ary or clerical party in Mexico, and partisans of Marquez and other ruffians, whose misdeeds 
have been among the principal causes of our intervention If Ferdinand Maximilian goes 
to Mexico, he will find his most active friends among the men who have shot, tortured, and 
robbed until Europe has at last lost patience." 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 271 

OUTRAGES UPON FOREIGNERS BY THE CHURCH PARTY, 

The conservative party has not ceased, in fact, to be guilty of such wrongs to foreigners 
as were most likely to provoke the intervention of France, England, and of Spain. We 
will recall a few of the most recent of these. An aide de-camp of President Zuloaga, in 
1858, publicly and in the grossest manner insulted M. Brasseure, captain under the first 
empire and attached to the chancellory of France. Shortly after, twenty high clerical officers, 
among whom was General Miramon, attacked and beat three Frenchmen in the streets of 
Mexico Later, and while himself invoking th ; intervention of France, Miramon ordered 
one of his generals, Silverio Ramirez, to throw into prison the vice-consul of France at 
Zacatecas, M. Lacroix, who had refused to pay an illegal tax. In 1859 General Marquez 
ordered the frightful massacres of Tacubaya, and robbed a conduda on the road to San Bias. 
Lastly, on the 17th of November, 1860, Miramon, in broad daylight and by main force, 
carried off $660,000 from the Euglish legation. "For forty years," says the report in 
which the Assembly of Notables set forth the motives which determined it to proclaim 
the Archduke Maximilian Emperor of Mexico, " for forty years Mexico has been governed 
by brigands, vagabonds, and incendiaries." 

The Assembly of Notables has too soon forgotten that for foity years Mexico has almost 
always been governed by the pirty which to-day proclaims the throne in Mexico It has 
too soon forgotten, too, that twenty-two of the thirty-five members of the superior council 
were formerly ministers or judges of the supreme court ; that two of the three high 
personages who compose the regency have been ministers, and that one of them, General 
Salas, was at one period, in 1847, provisional president, while then belonging to the lib ral 
party. 

We do not ceitainly pretend that the liberal party has been without fault. M. Thouvenel 
had ample ground for saying in his despatch of ihe 30th October, 1861. addiessed to M. 
Dubois de Saligny, that the measures of the government of Juarez in 1861, a few months 
before intervention, tdlobtain means, displayed the same disposition to abuse authority as 
all those which had preceded it. But the abuses with which Juarez and his ministers are 
reproached should not lead us to forget the excesses committed by their opponents, ami we 
have declared to them that if we may legitimately treat the former as enemies, there is no 
good reason to consider the others as friends whose past is any guarantee for their future 
conduct. 

Perhaps it is to be regretted that ciicumstances have not permitted us to change the 
situation. Suppose, for instance, that Juarez had been our ally, ami that he had aided us 
as efficiently and energetic illy as he has opposed us, there is no doubt that Mexico would 
be to-day at peace 

This hypothesis leads us to regret that the premature presence in the French camp of 
certain Mexicans who are too well known deprived us of the opportunity of presenting 
ourselves as mediators. Perhaps there is yet time to appeal anew for an agreement with 
conditions acceptable to all, and of a nature to put an immediate end to the civil war, and 
to intervention. Before stating what, in our opinion, these acceptable conditions are, we 
think it useful to recall all that has been said as to the purpose of the French intervention. 
We will then sketch a rapid picture of the existing situation, and we will deduce trom this 
showing the only possible solution of the question. 



II. 

THE FRENCH PROGRAMME. THE EMPEROR'S INSTRUCTIONS. 

The end which the French government proposes to attain by intervention in Mexico may 
be learned by an examination of the documents published, but no declarations so precise 
and formal as to leave no doubt as to the intentions of the government have been made 
upon this subject. M. Thouvenel wrote, October 11, 1861, that the legitimacy of our 
coercive measures in regard to Mexico only resulted, assuredly, from our grounds of com- 
plaint against the government of that country, and that these wrongs, as well as the 
means to redress them and prevent their repetition, could alone be made the object of an 
ostensible convention. Earl Russell, taking note of this declaration, demanded that it 
should be absolutely stipulated that the three powers should not interfere in the internal 
government of Mexico ; but M. Thouvenel would make no engagement on this point ; he 
was of opinion that the intervening powers, while leaving the Mexicans free as to the 
choice of their government, should not interdict in advance the possible exercise of a 
legitimate participation in events which might spring from the military operations. 

M. Thouvenel, therefore, made certain reservations before signing the convention of the 
. 31st October, and the cabinets of London and Madrid were perfectly aware that the French 
government proposed to itself a triple end : 



272 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

1. To obtain redress for certain wrongs. 

2. To aid the Mexicans in their work of regeneration. 

3. To oppose to the too great expansion of the Anglo-Saxon race in the New World ; n 
insurmountable barrier, by restoring to the Latin race in Mexico its force and prestige. 

This programme was completely and very clearly laid clown in the letter written by the 
Emperor to General Forey the 3d of July, 1862, aud as constant reference must be had to 
this important document, we think it of use to reproduce it at length. We may after- 
wards bett;r understand what has been accomplished, and what remains for us to do. 

THE EMPEROR TO GENERAL FOREY. 

" Foxtainebleau, July 3, 1862. 

" My Dear General : At the moment when you are about to leave for Mexico, charged 
with political and military powers, I deem it useful that you should understand my wishes. 

" This is the line of conduct which you are expected to pursue : 1. To issue a proclama- 
tion on your arrival, the principal ideas of which will be indicated to you. 2. To receive 
with the greatest kindness all Mexicans who may join you. 3. To espouse the quarrel of 
no party, but to announce that all is provisional until the Mexican nation shall have 
declared its wishes ; to show a great respect for religion, but to reassure at the same time 
the holders of national property. 4. To supply, pay, and arm, according to your ability, 
the auxiliary Mexican troops : to give them the chief part in combats. 5. To maintain 
among your troops, as well as among the auxiliaiies, the most severe discipline ; to repress 
with vigor every act, every design, which might wound the Mexicans, for their pride of 
character must not be forgotten, and it is of the first importance to the success of the 
undertaking to conciliate the good will of the people. 

" When we shall have reached the city of Mexico, it is desirable that you should have 
an understanding with the notable persons of every shade of op ini on who shall have 
espoused our cause, in order to organize a provisional government, xhis government will 
submit to the Mexican people the question of the form of political rule which shall be 
definitively established. An assembly will be afterwards elected in accordance with the 
Mexican laws. 

"You will aid the new government to introduce into the administration of affairs, and 
especially into the finauces, that regularity of which France offers the best example. To 
effect this, persons will be sent thither capable of aiding this new organization. 

"The end to be attained is not to impose upon the Mexicans a form of government 
which will be distasteful to them, but to aid them to establish, in conformity with their, 
wishes, a government which may have some chance of stability, and will assure to France 
the redress of the wrongs of which she complains. 

" It is not to be denied that if they prefer a monarchy it is in the interest of Frauce to 
aid them in this path. 

" Persons will not be wanting who will ask you why we propose to spend men and 
money to establish a regu ar government in Mexico. 

" In the present state of the world's civilization Europe is not indifferent to the pros- 
perity of America ; for it is she which nourishes our industry and gives life to our com- 
merce. It is our interest that the republic of the United States shall be powerful and 
prosperous, but it is not at all to our interest that she should grasp the whole Gulf of 
Mexico, rule thence the Autilles as well as South America, and be the sole dispenser of 
the products of the New World. We see to-day, by sad experience, how precarious is the 
fate of an industry which is foiced to teek its raw material in a single market, under all 
the vicissitudes to which that maiket is subject. 

"If, on the contrary, Mexico preserve its independence, and maintain the integrity of 
its territory, if a stable government be there established with the aid of France, we shall 
have restored to the Latin race on the other side of the ocean its force and its prestige ; 
we shall have guaranteed the safety of our own and the Spanish colonies in the Antilles. 
We shall have established our benign influence in the centre of America, and this influence, 
while creating immense outlets for our commerce, will pre cure the raw material which is 
indispensable to our industry. 

"Mexico thus regenerated will always be favorable to us, not only from gratitude, but 
also because her interests will be identical with our own, and because she will find a sup- 
port in the good will of European powers. 

"To-day, therefore, our military honor involved, the demands of our policy, the 
interest of our industry and our commerce, all impose upon us the duty of marching upon 
Mexico, there boldly planting our flag, and establishing perhaps a monarchy, if not incom- 
patible with the national sentiment of the country, but at least a government which will 
promise some Btabilitv. 

"NAPOLEON." 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 273 

Here, certainly, is a magnificent programme : to assure the independence of Mexico, 
and to render her forever favorable to us through giatitude and interest ; to establish the 
benign influence of France in the centre of America ; to open immense outlets to our com- 
merce, and new markets, where our industry may find the raw materials which are indis- 
pensable to it ; to restore to the Latin race on the other side of the ocean its power and 
prestige. • 

CAN THE FRENCH PROGRAMME BE REALIZED? 

But is it possible to realize this brilliant programme? Has Mexico the necessary 
elements for its transformation in a day into a great power? for it will need nothing less 
than a first-class power to restrain the ambition of the great American republic, whenever 
this republic seriously wishes to extend itself over Central America. Is it possible to 
establish a government of the Latin race which will give promise of any stability in a 
country seven-eighths of whose population are of the Indian race ? Is it prudent to develop 
a new phase of the question of race, which has been and still is a subject of so much dis- 
cord in America, and thereby still further complicate its solution ? Can it be seriously 
believed that a country without industrial resources, without capital, without roads — at 
least at all adequate to its population — will all at once offer to our commerce immense 
outlets, or to our industry the indispensable raw material ? 

It was at least necessary to the unanimous and loyal acceptance of our intervention that 
the imperial programme should be strictly conformed to. Unfortunately, when General 
Forey arrived at Vera Cruz the political success of this enterprise had already been long 
compromised by the inopportune and arbitrary acts of M. Almonte. These acts were 
disavowed, but it was too late 

A very remarkable pamphlet, which attracted great public attention, was published 
about six months since, under the title " What will we do in Mexico? " To-day we may 
ask " What have we done in Mexico? " 



III. 

PROGRESS OF THE INVASION. —PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 

General Forey made his entry into the capital of Mexico on the 12th of June, 1863, and 
immediately undertook, with the aid of M. Dubois de Saligny, to organize the municipal 
powers and a provisional government. One of his first acts was to subject the Mexican 
press to the rule which governs the French press. 

A Superior Council, or Junta, composed of thirty-five members, instituted by a decree of 
the 16th June, designated in its turn, as members of the executive powers, General 
Almonte, the archbishop of Mexico, and General Salas. The same Junta afterward sum- 
moned 215 persons as an Assembly of Notables. 

The provisional government wa* therefore composed, first, of a Superior Council or Junta, 
named by General Forey ; second, of a Triumvirate and of an Assembly of Notables 
designated by the Superior Junta.f 

* A decree declaring null and void, as presenting an obstacle to the law of sequestration, all sales of 
property or of merchandise belonging to persons hostile to intervention, was, without doubt, annulled by the 
simple tact of cancellation by the French government of the decree relating to sequestration, rendered at 
Puebla on the 21st May. 

t It has been incorrectly stated that " representatives of all parties, even of the Juarists, " were included in 
the Superior Junta. This high council was composed of the following persons : Jose Ignacio Pavon, presi- 
dent of the supreme court under the dictatorship of Santa Anna; Manuel Diaz de Bonilla, minister of foreign 
affairs under Santa Anna ; Jose Basilio Arrillaga, a priest of the Jesuit order ; Teodosio Lares, minister of 
justice under Santa Anna ; Francisco Xavier Miranda, priest, minister of justice under Miramon ; Ignatio 
Aguilar y Marocho, minister of justice under Santa Anna ; Jose Sallano, priest ; Joaquin Velasquez de Leon, 
minister if finance under Santa Anna ; Antonio Fernandez Monjardin, minister of justice under Santa Anna : 
Ignacio Mora y Villamil, general director of engineers under Santa Anna; Ignacio Sepulveda, judge of 
Mexico under Santa Anna ; Jose Maria Andrade ; Agapito de Munoz y Muroz ; Jose Ildofonso Amable ; 
Gerardo Garcia Kogas ; Joaquin de Castillo y Lanzas, "minister under Santa Anna and under Miramon ; 
Mariano Dominguez, judge of the supreme court under Santa Anna ; Jose Guadalupe Arriola, priest ; 
Teofilo Marin, minister of justice under Miramon ; General Adrien Woll, Frenchman, governor of the state 
of Tamaulipas under Santa Anna, and of Guadalajara under Miramon ; Fernando Mangino, charg6 d'affaires 
of Mexico in France under Santa Anna; Jose Miguel Arroyo, director of the department of foreign affairs 
under Santa Anna and Miramon ; Miguel Cervantes, general and marquis of Salvatierra in the time of the 
Spaniards ; Crispiano del Castello, minister under Santa Anna and Miramon ; Alessandra Arango of Escaudon, 
one of the leading partisans of Miramon ; Juan Hierro Maldonado, minister of finance under Miramon ; 
Manuel Miranda, a Spanish merchant; Jose Lopez Ortigosa; Manuel Jimenez ; Gajetano Montego; Santiago 
Blanco, general, minister of war under Santa Anna ; Pablo Vergare, member of the supreme court under 
Santa Anna and under Miramon; Manuel Tejada, superintendent of church property; Urbano Tovar, 
secretary of the treasury under Miramon ; Antonio Moran, director of the department of justice under 
Miramon. 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 18 



274 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The Assembly of Notables, at its first session, and without debate, voted for an imperial 
form of government, by a majority of 213 in a vote of 215. The Archduke Maximilian 
■was immediately proclaimed Emperor by the same majority, and it was voted at the same 
session that in the case of refusal by the archduke, the Emperor Napoleon be urged to 
designate a substitute. # 

We find nowhere any question of a submission of the vote of the Assembly c f Notables 
to ratification by universal suffrage. The decree by which the Superior Junta of the 
Assembly of Notables was constituted nowhere refers to an appeal to the people. The 
articles of this law or decree which relate to the form of government are thus stated : 

"Art. 14. The Assembly of Notables will discuss in the first place the form of govern- 
ment to be definitively established in Mexico. The vote upon this question must embrace 
at least one-half of the suffrages. 

" Art. 15. In case this majority shall not be obtained, the executive power will dissolve 
the assembly, and the Superior Junta will proceed without delay to form a new assembly. 

" Aet. 16. The members of the present assembly will be eligible to re-election. 

" Art. 17. After having decided upon the form of government to be definitively estab- 
lished, the Assembly of Notables will take into consideration the questions which will be 
submitted to it by the executive power." 

" Aet. 23. The functions of the executive power will cease when the Assembly of 
Notables shall have proclaimed the inauguration of the definitive government." 

The resolution adopted by the Assembly of Notables is in effect stated in absolute terms, 
and undertakes the definitive settlement of the question. This resolution declares that — 

" The Mexican nation, through its organ, the Assembly of Notables, chooses the empire 
as its form of government, and proclaims the Archduke Maximilian, of Austria, Emperor." 

The Assembly of Notables has deserved the reproaches which have been cast upon it 
from every quarter, of having acted with too great haste. It lost neither a day nor an 
hour. A deputation named by it, and charged with the offer of the crown to the Arch- 
duke Maximilian, left Vera Cruz the 18th of August to proceed to Miramar with the 
utmost speed. This deputation was composed of the following persons : 

M. Gutierrez de Estrada, formerly minister of foreign affairs and ambassador of Mexico 
at the court of Rome, president of the deputation; Father Miranda, formerly minister of 
justice ; M. Aguilar y Marocho, clerk of the commission named by the Assembly of Nota- 
bles ; M. J. Hidalgo, formerly secretary of the embassy ; General Woll, Colonel Velasquez 
de Leon, M. Angel Iglesias. 

DEPARTCEE FEOM THE 1MPEEIAL PBOGRAMME. 

But the Assembly of Notables, in pretending to be the organ of the Mexican nation, and 
in definitively choosing the empire as the form of government, did not conform to the impe- 
rial programme. The Emperor had said in his letter to General Forey : 

" When we shall have reached the city of Mexico, it is desirable that you should have 
an understanding with the notable persons of every shade of opinion who shall have 
espoused our cause, in order to organize a provisional government. This government will 
submit to the Mexican people the question of the form of political rule which shall be 
definitely established— an assembly will be afterward selected, in accordance with the 
Mexican laws." 

M. Drouyn de Lhuys consequently hastened to remind General Bazaine, who had been 
named commander-in-chief of the French forces, that the imperial programme should be 
scrupulously followed. 

" We have noticed with pleasure," he wrote on the 17th of August, 18G3, "as a symp- 
tom of favorable augury, the manifestation of the Assembly of Notables in Mexico in favor 
of the establishment of a monarchy, and the name of the prince called to the empire. But, 
as I indicated to you in a former despatch, we can ouly consider the vote of this assembly 
as a first indication of the inclinations of the country. With the great authority which 
attaches to the men of mark which compose it, the assembly recommends to its fellow-citi- 
zens the adoption of monarchical institutions, and designates a prince for their suffrages. 

"It is now the part of the provisional government to collect these suffrages in such a 
manner that no doubt shall hang over this expression of the will of the country. I shall 
not indicate to you the mode to adopt to completely obtain this indispensable result. It 
must be found in the institutions of the country and its local customs. 

" Whether the municipalities should be summoned to declare their wishes in the differ- 
ent provinces, as fast as they regain their independence of action, or whether the polls 
should be opened under their authority to receive the votes, that mode will be the best 

'Messrs. Gutierrez de Estrada and J. Hidalgo were already in Europe. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 275 

which will assure the largest manifestation of the popular voice under the hest conditions 
of independence and sincerity. The Emperor, general, particularly commends this essen- 
tial point to your constant care." 

The vote of the Assembly of Notables is, therefore, in the opinion of the French govern- 
ment, only a symptom of favorable augury, a first indication of the loish of the country. 

KEPLY OF THE ARCHDUKE MAXIMILIAN. 

The reply made by the Archduke Maximilian on the 3d of October, 1863, to the Mexican 
deputation is, moreover, in the same spirit. This is his reply : 

" I am profoundly grateful for the wishes expressed by the Assembly of Notables. 

". It cannot be other than flattering to our house that the thoughts of your countrymen 
turn to the descendants of Charles V. 

"It is a proud task to assure the independence and the prosperity of Mexico under the 
protection of free and lasting institutions. I must, however, recognize the fact — and in 
this I entirely agree with the Emperor of the French, whose glorious undertaking makes 
the regeneration of Mexico possible — that the monarchy cannot be re-established in your 
country on a firm and legitimate basis unless the whole nation shall confirm, by a free 
manifestation of its will, the wishes of the capital. 

"My acceptance of the offered throne must, therefore, depend upon the result of the 
vote of the whole country. 

" Further, a sentiment of the most sacred of the duties of the sovereign requires that he 
should demand for the proposed empire every necessary guarantee to secure it against the 
dangers which threaten its integiity and its independence. 

" If substantial guarantees for the future can be obtained, and if the universal suffrage 
of the noble Mexican people select me as its choice, I shall be ready, with the consent of 
the illustrious chief of my family, and trusting to the protection of the Almighty, to accept 
the throne. 

"It is my duty to announce to you now, gentlemen, that in case Providence shall call 
me to the high mission of civilization which is attached to this crown, it is my fixed inten- 
tion to open to your country, by means of a constitutional government, a path to a progress 
based on order and civilization, and as soon as the empire shall be completely pacified, to 
seal with my oath the fundamental agreement concluded with the nation. 

" It is only in this manner that a truly national policy can be established, in which all 
parties, forgetting their ancient quarrels, will unite to raise Mexico to the high rank which 
she should attain under a government whose first principle will be law based on equity. 

" I beg of you to communicate these my intentions, frankly expressed, to your country- 
men, and to take measures to obtain from the nation an expression of its will as to the 
form of government it intends to adopt." 

EUROPEAN OPINION OP THE ARCHDUKE' S KEPLY. 

This wise and noble reply, which was in conformity with the line of conduct traced by 
the French government, disappointed no one but the Mexican deputation. 

" It will be understood," said the General Correspondence of Vienna of the 5th of Octo- 
ber, " that the Archduke could not accept the offer of the Assembly of Notables (which 
has as yet only received adhesion from a small number of departments occupied by the 
French troops) so long as certain other conditions, and chiefly the effective support of the 
maritime powers, are as yet in the region of possibilities. England has not yet officially 
promised her support, although the public opinion of that country seems to favor the 
project." 

The London Times, in fact, said on this subject on the 1st of October : 

"The Archduke expects much from France and a little from England. He will deceive 
himself if he expects England to take an equal part with France in the aid to be given to 
Mexico. It is impossible that France can recall its troops after the arrival of Maximilian 
in Mexico. This would be to expose him to humiliation and to the return of anarchy. 
But it is impossible that England should ever join in a military occupation of Mexico. We 
will immediately recognize the Archduke. "We will be friendly to Mexico, but nothing 
more." 

The Times only repeated in other words what Lord Russell said in all his despatches. 



276 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

IV. 

THE F8ENCH PROGRAMME — ITS DIFFICULTIES. 

It results from all the documents quoted, and especially from the despatch addressed by 
M. Drouyn de Lhuys to General Bazaine, the 17th of August, 1863 — 

1. That France seeks in Mexico " neither conquest nor colonial establishment, nor even 
any political or commercial advantage to the exclusion of other powers.'' 

2. That the French government expressly disavows any intention to substitute its iofiu- 
ence for the free will of the Mexican nation, and that the desire of the Emperor's govern- 
ment is to limit, as promptly as circumstances will permit, the extent and length of our 
occupation . 

3. That the Archduke Maximilian will not definitely accept the crown until the Mexican 
people, being consulted, shall have freely elected him, and until he shall bave obtained 
every guarantee, necessary to assure the proposed empire against the dangeis whicb threaten 
its integrity and its independence. 

It is necessary, therefore, to collect as soon as possible the suffrages of the Mexican 
people, and, conforming to the instructions of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, it is in the institutions 
and local customs of the country that the mode must be sought to obtain this indispensable 
result in the most thorough manner. 

These institutions and local customs are quite simple. Every Mexican who has a lawful 
occupation, of more than eighteen years of age if married, and of more than twenty-one 
years of age if unmarried, exercises the privileges of a citizen, and his name is inscribed on 
the electoral lists of the municipality to which he belongs. 

But how shall the vote be taken ? Shall the poll be declared open only in the localities 
occupied by the French troops, or in all Mexico ? If in the former manner, the vote would 
not be the largest manifestation of the popular will, because the whole people would not 
be consulted ; in the latter, the appeal could not be made known to them, and would con- 
sequently fall to the ground. 

The situation may be understood at a single glance by a reference to the map which is 
added to this pamphlet. 'I he French occupation is only effective in the part of the Mexican 
territory colored in red ; and even this part of the territory is overrun by seventy-two 
hostile guerilla bands, averaging from seventy to three hundred men each. The freedom 
and purity of the ballot could, therefore, only be guaranteed in a portion of the territory 
of Mexico, relatively very small. Seven-eighths of the population of Mexico and twenty- 
nine thirtieths of its territory are beyond the lines of the French protection, as may be 
ascertained by an examination, without reference to the map, of some of the statistical and 
geographical details which follow. 



V. 

STATES, CAPITALS, AND POPULATION OF MEXICO. 

Mexico is divided into 22 States, 6 Territories, and a Federal District. 

Superficial or Population 
States. square miles. in 1858. Capitals. Inhabitants. 

Aguascalientes 2,739 88,329 Aguascalientes 39,693 

Chiapa 18,679 167,472 San Cristobal 7,649 

Chihuahua 83,512 164,073 Chihuahua 12,069 

Coahuila 36,572 67,590 Paltillo 19,898 

Durango 48,489 144,331 Durango 22,000 

Guanajuato 11,396 729,103 Guanajuato 48,954 



* The Constitution of 1857, made in this politieul division of Mexico the following alterations : 

Title H— Section 2. Art. 43. The Mexican confederation is composed of twenty-four states and one 
Territory, the names of which are as follows: Aguascalientes, Colima, Chiapa, Chihuahua, Durango, Guana- 
juato, Guerrero, Jalisco. Mexico. Michoacan. Xucvo I. con and Cohahuila. Oajaca. Puebla, Queretaro, San 
Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, the Valley of Mexico, Vera Cruz, Yucatan. 
Zacatecas, and the Territory of Lower California. 

Art. 44. The States of Aguascalientes, Chiapa, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Mexico, Puebla, Qusre- 
taro, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and the Territory ol Lower California, retain the boundaries which they 
have had hitherto (1857.) 

ART. 45. The States of Colima and of Tlaxcala retain, being erected iuto States, boundaries which they bad 
when they were only Territories of the confederacy. 

ART. 46. The State of the Valley Of Mexico comprises the territory which has, until now, (1857,) formed the 
federal district ; but it will only take rank as a State when the federal government shall have been removed 
to some other place. 

ART. 47. The State of Xucvo Leon and Cohahuila. comprises the former Territory of Xucvo Leou and 
Cohahuila, unless the hacienda of Bonanza, shall be re-incorporated into the state of Zacatecas. 

The other States, Guanajuato, Jalisco V( ra Cruz, and San Luis Potosi. make some exchanges of towns, to 
rectify their frontier lines. 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 



277 



Superficial or 

States. square miles. 

Guerrero 32,003 

Jalisco 48,591 

Mexico 1 19,539 

Michoacan 22,993 

NuevoLeon 16,688 

Oajaca 23,642 

Puebla 8,879 

Queretaro 1,884 

San Luis Potosi 28,142 

Sinaloa 33,722 

Sonora- 100,228 

Tabasco 12,359 

Tamaulipas 30,334 

Vera Cruz 27,415 

Yucatan 48,869 

Zacatecas 27,768 

Territories. 

Lower California 60,662 

Colima 3,019 

Isla cle Carman 7,298 

Sierra Gord a 3,127 

Tehuantepec 12,526 

Tlaxcala 1,984 

District. 
Federal District 



90 



Total 793,179 



Population 
in 1858. 

279,109 
804,058 
1,129,629 
554, 585 
145,779 
525,938 
658,609 
165,155 
397,189 
163,714 
139,374 
70,628 
109,673 
349, 125 
668,623 
296,789 

12,000 
62,109 
11,807 
55,358 
82,395 
90,158 

260.534 

8,400,236 



Capitals. Inhabitants. 

Tixtla 6,501 

Guadalajara 68,000 

Toluca 12,000 

Morelia 25,000 

Monterey 17,309 

Oajaca 25,000 

Puebla 71,631 

Queretaro 29,702 

San Luis Potosi 19,678 

Caliacan 9,647 

Ures 6,009 

San Juan Bautista 5,300 

Victoria 4,621 

Vera Cruz. 9, 647 

Merida 23,575 

Zacatecas 15,427 

La Paz 1,254 

Colima 31,774' 

V.delCarmen 3,068 

San Luis de la Paz 4,411 

Minatitlan 339 

Tlaxcala 3,463 

City of Mexico 205,000 



The population has increased since 1793 at the following rate 

Years. Population. Years. 

1793 „ 5,273,029 

1803 5,873,100 

1808 6,500,000 

1824 6,500,000 

1830 7,996,000 



Population. 

1839 7,065,000 

1842 7,015,509 

1851 7,867,520 

1854 7,853,395 

1858 8,287,413 



The population is composed of about 1,000,000 white, descendants of Europeans, 
4,000,000 Indians, 6,000 blacks, and 3,400,000 metis (part white and part Indian) or mulat- 
toes (part white and part black.) The foreigners, to the number of 9,234 in 1838, are 
classed as follows: Spaniards, 5,141; French, 2,048; English, 615; Germans, 681; 
Americans, 44-4 ; miscellaneous, 405. 



VI. 



AX EXPRESSION OF MEXICAN OPINION IMPOSSIBLE. 



The orders sent by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys to General Bazaine, the 14th of August last, 
could not be executed. The commander-in-chief saw the impossibility of obtaining a 
popular ratification of the vote of the Assembly of Notables so long as seven hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants only were under the protection of France, and more than seven millions still 
clung to Juarez or his partisans. Rightly or wrongly, if the polls had been declared open 
under such circumstances, the provisional government would have been accused of the exer- 
cise of a pressure, in the part of the country occupied by it, contrary to the freedom of the 
ballot. On the other hand, it would have been a strange delusion to suppose that the 
adversaries of intervention would permit a resort to a regular election in the immense 
territory not yet occupied. 

Too early an announcement was made that the organization of the new political r'eglme 
had replaced the power of arms. Such was not the opinion of General Bazaine, wiiose 
position well enabled him to survey the field, for he determined a new campaign against 
Juarez to be absolutely necessary. Great preparations have been made, and the latest 
news left the expeditionary forces masters of Queretaro. But no matter how skilfully and 
energetically this campaign may be managed, a prompt conclusion cannot be looked for. 

Juarez will not risk everything on a single engagement. He will take good care not to 

er battle, and he will use every effort to avoid one. Everything leads to the belief that 



278 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

he will persist in the tactics which he has followed since the surrender of Puehla. He will 
abandon San Luis Potosi, just as he has abandoned Mexico and Queretaro. He will beat 
a continual retreat before the French army, confining himself to the distribution of a large 
part of his force into guerilla bands. 

Shall we continue to pursue these forces, which ever evade our grasp, into a mountainous 
country, extremely difficult of access to a regular army, and in which we shall be obliged 
to leave garrisons in every town and village, and to distribute all along the roads flying 
columns to secure the safety of our communications? The effective numbers of the expe- 
ditionary corps would soon prove insufficient to such a task, and prudence would not permit 
us to leave too far in the rear, and exposed to a coup de main, Cordova, Orizaba, Puebla, and 
Mexico. 

A MILITARY SOLUTION POSTPONED. 

A solution of this question by force of arms seems, therefore, to be indefinitely post- 
poned, unless the French expeditionary corps shall be trebled or quadrupled ; and such is 
certainly not the intention of the French government, since M. Drouyn de l'Huys has 
ordered General Bazaine to take measures to limit, as promptly as circumstances will admit, 
the extent and length of our occupation. 

These circumstances will spring up of their own accord as soon as a stable and truly 
national government shall have succeeded the provisional government inaugurated the 
18th of Juue. We may then retire ; the end proposed by our intervention will have been 
fulfilled, and we shall be finally free from our responsibility. But this result, so much 
desired, cannot, we fear, be obtained within any short period of time unless by tbe procla- 
mation of a suspension of hostilities, during which the question of what form of political 
rule they shall prefer definitely to establish may be submitted to the Mexican people. The 
mode to obtain this is very simple : 

PROPOSED SOLUTION BY AN ARMISTICE AND A BALLOT. 

1. An armistice of three months. 

2. During the armistice an appeal to be made to the people. 

3. The electoral processes will be carried out under the supervision of an equal number of 
agents chosen by the provisional government in power at Mexico, and of agents named by 
President Juarez Commissioners delegated by the commander-in-chief of the French 
forces will take care that the vote shall be surrounded by every possible guarautee of inde- 
pendence. 

4. The people will be called upon to vote for the establishment of an empire, according 
to the wish expressed by the Assembly of Notables, or for tbe maintenance of the republic 
and of the constitution of 1852. 

5. Juarez will engage to abide by the new order of things, or to quit the country, in 
case the vote of the Assembly .of Notables shall be ratified by the people. If Juarez, on 
the contrary, or any other candidate of the liberal party, shall obtain the majority of the 
votes, the French occupation would no longer have any purpose. 

Whatever might be the result of the vote, France would certainly obtain the redress of 
its wrongs. If the people pronounce in favor of the re-establishment of the empire, the 
Archduke Maximilian could proceed without apprehension to receive the crown which has 
been tendered to him, for the submission or withdrawal of Juarez would end all serious 
opposition. If, on the contrary, Juarez should receive the majority of the votes, his re- 
election under such solemn conditions would give him the moral force which he lacks, and 
the clerical party, knowing well that it need never count again upon a European interven- 
tion, would stop its intrigues. 

The government of Juarez represents the abolition of political privileges, civil equality, 
the union of two races which for three centuries have been kept forcibly apart — the Indians 
and the Creoles. What motive could be asMgned for refusing to treat with him it" he should 
be, for the third time, regularly proclaimed president .' lie has been reproached with a 
wish to dismember Mexico for the benefit of the United States. But he will not linger in 
the tiying situation against which be has had to struggle for tbe last six years, and he will 
hereafter find his interest in maintaining the integrity of Mexico. And further, what 
better guarantees can the conservatives give in this respect? Did not Santa Anna sell to 
the United States, in 1854, tbe Mesill.i valley for the sum of fifty millions of francs. 
($10,000,000,) and did not Mr. Almonte himself, at that time minister of Mexico at Wash- 
ington, approve this sale and receive tbe first payment, reaching the 6um of thirty-five 
millions of francs, ($7,000,000?) 

It has been falsely stated that there was a perfect unity in the views and action of the 
conservatives. On the contrary, the conservatives are very much divided ; the archbishop 
of Mexico and General Salas, in tendering their resignations as members of the provisional 
executive power, afford a new proof of this fact. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 279 

We cannot, therefore, see what good reason there is to prefer the conservatives to the 
liberals. 

The Emperor said in his letter to General Forey, the 3d July, 1862 : 

"The end to he attained is not to impose upon* the Mexicans a form of government which 
will be distasteful to them, hut to aid them to establish, in conformity with their wishes, a 
government which has some chance of stability, and will assure to France the redress of 
wrongs of which she has had to complain " 

Why pursue the struggle and persist in so useless a spilling of blood, from which there 
cannot even result any glory to our arms? Would it not be more wise and simple not to 
treat with Juarez, but to proclaim on both sides a suspension of hostilities, during which 
the people shall freely and finally decide between the two parties in opposition — between 
the conservatives and the liberals? The Mexican people will be taken as the arbiter of its 
own destinies, and the essential part of the imperial programme will receive within a very 
short period its full application. We will bring to an honorable end a costly enterprise . 
we will avoid all danger of a collision with the United States, and we will have besides, 
on the eve, perhaps, of a European struggle, the free disposal of our land and naval forces ■ 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of AiMerica, 

Washington, February 25, 1S64. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to transmit to you, annexed to this note, 
a translation into English of the discourses pronounced in the French legislative 
body by Mr. Gueroult, Mr. Thiers, Mr. Berryer, and* Mr. Favre, during the 
discussions which took place in that assembly on the affairs of Mexico on the 
25th, 26th, and 27th days of January last past. The speeches referred to are 
translated from the official text thereof as it was published in the Moniteur 
Universel, official paper of the French government, in the Nos. 26, 27, and 28, 
answering to the 26th, 27th, and 28th of the said January. 

The orators of whom I have made mention had, for purpose, political censure 
of the course followed by the French government in its expedition against 
Mexico, and they considered it either in the point of view of advantage to 
France only, as did Mr. Thiers, or under the more elevated aspect of the justice 
of intervention and the motives or pretexts of the war, which engaged the at- 
tention of Mr. Favre. 

I think it possible to say that, although there are in said speeches some 
sufficiently serious and substantial inaccuracies, which are patent to all who are 
well informed of the facts which had happened in Mexico, they constitute a 
deliberate and solemn rebuke of the imperial policy, made (and this is worthy 
of note) by the most distinguished and respected representatives of the nation 
for whose benefit it is pretended to carry out the intervention. 

I do not include the speeches made by the organs of the French government 
in defence of the imperial policy, because, besides the supposition that the said 
government will take care to give them wide circulation, and that they will 
reach the department through other channels, they contain inaccuracies of such 
nature, that it would not be proper for me to send them to the government of 
the United States without exposing the inaccuracies to which I allude, and this 
would be a greater labor than I can at present undertake, being, moreover, of 
little use, on the supposition that the defences attempted to be made of the 
Napoleonic policy were so feeble that, taking for granted as true all the 
facts and reasons alleged by the imperial organs, that policy would forever rest 
condemned in the opinion of impartial and right-minded men. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to you the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

*M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc, fyc.., Sfc. 



280 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Debate in the French legi&lotive body, on the offairs of Mexico. 

Corps Legislative, Session of the 25th of January. — Presidency of his Excellency the Due 

of Moray. 

The President. Now, gentlemen, we pass to the 6th paragraph, relative to China, Cochin- 
China, and Mexico. It is as follows : 

" The legislative body believes with you, sire, that the most wisely-governed nations can- 
not flatter themselves that they will always escape external complications, and that they 
ought to regard tbem without illusions as without weakness The distant expeditions to 
China, Cochin-China, and Mexico, which have succeeded each other, have, in fact, disqui- 
eted many persons in France, on account of the obligations and sacrifices which they entail. 
We acknowledge that they ought to inspire respect afar for our countrymen and for the 
French flag, and that they can, therefore, develop our maritime commerce ; but we will 
be happy to see the speedy realization of the good results which your Majesty gives us reason 
to hope." 

The first amendment which is presented is that of Messrs. Gueroult, Magnin, A. Darimon, 
Jules Simon, Hdnon, Havin, Jules Favre, Lanjuinais, Dorian, Eugene Pelletan, Ernest 
Picard, and Emile Ollivier. The amendment is couched in the following terms : 

" We see with pain that the government persists in the Mexican expedition. We cannot 
associate ourselves with this ruinous enterprise; and we are the interpreters of public 
opinion when we demand that it should be brought to an immediate termination." 

M. Gueroult is entitled to the floor 

M. Gt'EROULT Gentlemen : It has now become almost commonplace to come and criti- 
cise the Mexican expedition. That expedition is not popular. The uncertain or but little 
known causes which have produced it, its problematical, results, the considerable sums 
which it has cost, the sacrifices of men mowed down by war or dtsease, all have brought a 
certain unpopularity on this expedition. So my intention, in addressing you now, is not 
to criticise the details of accomplished facts or actions already brought about by our gene- 
rals or by the chiefs of the expedition. I am going to examine, in your presence, the 
causes which led to the Mexican expedition — the apparent causes and the real causes — in 
the hope, if we succeed in pointing out the prime idea of the expedition, to show you that 
this idea is wanting in justness. This result would not be useless We will not demand 
of an expedition to obtain results which the very nature of things does not permit it to 
reach ; we will then show ourselves less severe and less exacting in regard to the conditions 
on which we can put an end to this disastrous expedition. What are the causes -which 
gave occasion for the Mexican expedition ? I speak, first, of the apparent causes. They 
are, outrages inflicted for a long period on our countrymen — extortions, exactions of every 
kind, assassinations in great number ; an attempt even of assassination committed on the 
person of the representative of France. 

It would seem, at first sight, that all these causes combined would suffice to explain the 
motives for a declaration of ^Var, and yet, on a closer examination, we reach the conviction 
that, if there had been no other motives, the expedition should never have taken place. 

In fact, gentlemen, the exactions, the extortions, the violences are real. They have been 
very numerous. Rut, seriously and sincerely, can a European power demand that, in a 
country given up to civil war, rent asunder by anarchy, our countrymen who go thither 
with full knowledge of these facts, and perfectly aware of the state of disorder into which 
the country is plunged, can enjoy a security which is not accorded to the people of the 
country themselves ? 

This consideration is so strong, that for a long time there were numerous causes of com- 
plaint in Mexico which never resulted in the application of any remedy, either on account 
of the difficulty of the expedition itself, or by reason of this general sentiment with regard 
to the state of the country. I do not think that these reasons were the principal reasons, 
the fundamental ones, of the expedition ; and if you will allow me, I will proceed to seek 
them elsewhere, and in a higher sphere. 

Gentlemen, in the treaty signed between France, Spain, and England, under date of Oc- 
tober 31, 1801, no disposition foreign to the causes which 1 have just enumerated is men- 
tioned. "This expedition is undertaken to insure, by means of combined action in com- 
mon, efficacious protection to the persons and property of their respective countrymen in 
Mexico." 

In article 2 it is said that, "The high contracting parties engage not to seek for them- 
selves, in the employment of the coercive measures provided for by the present convention, 
any acquisition of territory or any particular advantage, and not to exert in the internal 
affairs of Mexico any influence of a character calculated to infringe on the right of the 
Mexican nation to choW- and freely establish the form of its government." 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 281 

You see, gentlemen, in the commencement there is question only of reparation to be 
exacted. 

However, it is evident that among the three contracting parties one at least entertained 
greater projects. In fact, when the three combined armies had arrived in Mexico, there 
were at first, as you know, preliminaries signed at La Soledad, subsequently disavowed by 
the French government ; finally conferences took place at Orizaba, in which a rupture oc- 
curred. We are perfectly aware of the motives of it. The proceedings of the conference 
of Orizaba have been published, and from them it appears that General Almonte was 
present in the camp of the allies ; that he asked their protection, in order to march against 
Mexico ; that he put forth the idea that no treaty, no arrangement, should be entered into 
between the allies and the Mexican government. Moreover, he enunciated the idea that 
the allied armies were going to Mexico to overthrow the Mexican government and to es- 
tablish a mdharchy. He proclaimed himself as authorized for this purpose by the very 
words of the sovereign of France. Hereupon ensued a rupture, which is yet present to the 
memory of all. The Spanish army withdrew, England followed ; France remained alone 
in Mexico, and pursued the expedition on her own account. 

After some military events, on which it is useless to insist, a new commander, General 
Forey, was sent out. Here the idea, which, in my opinion, is the real idea of the exj)edi- 
tion, shows itself with the greatest clearness. In a letter which you all remember, a letter 
addressed by the Emperor to General Forey, we read : 

" There will not fail to be persons who will ask you why we proceed to expend men and 
money to found a regular government in Mexico. 

" In the actual state of the civilization of the world, the prosperity of America is not a 
matter of indifference to Europe, for it is it that supports our manufactures and gives life 
to our commerce. We have an interest that the republic of the United States should be 
powerful and prosperous, but we have none that it should possess itself of the whole Gulf of 
Mexico, thence dominate over the Antilles as well as over South America, and be the sole 
dispensator of the products of the New World. We now see, by sad experience, how pre- 
carious is that sort of industry which is reduced to look for its raw material to one quarter 
only in all the vicissitudes of which it is thus compelled to participate. 

"If, on the contrary, Mexico preserves its independence and maintains the integrity of 
its territory, if a stable government is established there with the assistance of France, we 
shall have rendered to the Latin race, on the other side of the ocean, its due strength and 
its prestige ; we shall have guaranteed their proper security to our colonies in the Antilles 
and to those of Spain ; we shall have established our beneficent influence in the centre of 
America ; and that influence, in creating immense outlets for our commerce, will procure 
us those staples that are indispensable for our industry. 

" Mexico, thus regenerated, will always be favorable to us, not only through gratitude, 
but also because its interests will be in unison with our own, and because it will find a 
powerful means of support in its friendly relations with the European powers." 

There is here evidently a very grand and very lofty thought, that of opposing a barrier 
to the invasion of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

The idea of raising up the Latin and Catholic races in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon and 
Protestant races is certainly a grand political idea. It only remains to be known whether 
this idea is as practicable as it is great. It is upon this point that I entertain doubts, which 
are confirmed by a residence of four years that I have spentin Mexico, and by the attentive 
observation which I have made of its manners and its institutions. Permit me here to 
enter into some details. 

I commence by asserting that it appears evident to me that this idea of constituting an 
empire in Mexico would not have entered into the views of the French government had 
not a most important event, the civil war in the United States, been inaugurated a few 
months previously. It was in the month of January, (March,) 1861, if I am not mistaken, 
that the first cannon shots were exchanged at Charleston between the south and the north 
of the United States ; it was in the month of June that complaints became urgent on the 
part of the French legation in Mexico ; it was in the month of October that the treaty was 
signed between the three interfering powers. 

It seems, then, that these two elementary notions, the desire of withdrawing our com- 
merce from the preponderating influence of the United States in furnishing a precious staple, 
cotton, and the idea of a political equilibrium, perhaps of a religious equilibrium, combined 
to urge on this expedition. 

Well, it is from this point of view that I propose to myself to examine the Mexican ex- 
pedition, abstracting entirely, I repeat, from any criticism of details which has been already 
most satisfactorily done, and in regard to which I could only repeat what has been better 
said than I am capable of doing. 

It was projected, then, gentlemen, to establish an empire in Mexico. It was evident 
that such an establishment could not be agreeable to the Americans of the north. There- 



282 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

fore, it was calculated upon, and strongly hoped, that a division should be effected between 
the south and the north. This desire has become so strong that it has degenerated into a 
mania, and that, as you remember, the whole French press friendly to the government 
has shown itself remarkably favorable to the cause of the south, even to the point of of- 
fending the north ; and you remember that, in the course of last summer, the displeasure 
of the north had reached such a point that a Russian fleet, coming to rendezvous at New 
York, was received with an enthusiasm so great that we may be allowed to see in it a cer- 
tain amount of irritation against France. 

This partiality for the south, if we abstract from the reasons which I have indicated, was 
not really natural. France was an enemy of slavery. Now, whatever may have been said 
of it, there was no other cause of separation between the north and the south than slavery. 
[Cries of no, no, from several benches ] 

Several members. Yes, yes. 

M.. Guerotjlt. Gentlemen, it is not for questions of tariffs that nations rend themselves 
with their own hands ; they are merely transitory. It is so true that slavery was the prin- 
cipal and, I shall say, the only cause of war, [renewed cries of No, no,] that when President 
Lincoln was nominated, the southern States, which up to that time had enjoyed the privi- 
lege of furnishing Presidents to the republic, did not await the manifestation of his policy ; 
they rushed to arms and declared war. And since that time questions of tariffs have dis- 
appeared ; they are spoken of no more ; there is no longer any question but that of slavery. 
[Manifestations of various kinds.] 

Gentlemen, I do not pretend to force your convictions [No, no ;] but I tell you that I 
have carefully examined the question, and I merely ask permission to lay before you my 
sentiments. 

In the south slavery has become almost a religious institution ; it has its philosophy and, 
I will say, almost its theology founded on the Bible. It is on the words pronounced against 
Ham, " Thou shalt serve thy brethren," that this idea is based There are preachers who 
preach these doctrines in the south, and who find themselves authorized to seek the sanc- 
tion of slavery in that grand code of freedom for slaves, the gospel. 

All this is opposed to our feelings, and yet we have inclined to the cause of the south. 
There is evidently a cause for this. That cause I have already declared to you. It was 
thought that the formation of a new state to the south of the great American republic and 
interposing between Mexico and the north would constitute a sort of barrier between the 
two nations, and that the new government which it was wished to found in Mexico might 
gain strength and consistency under the protection of this barrier. 

If you will allow me to say so, I believe that the idea of the separation and final triumph 
of the south was not just. I believe that the immense disproportion which exists between 
the north and the south will necessarily result in the triumph of the north. I believe that 
this triumph will be due as well to the preponderance as to the superiority of northern in- 
dustry, and then, above all, to the fact that liberty exists in the north and slavery in the 
south. [Marks of approbation from some benches, of disapprobation from most.] 

But I go further, and I assert that, on the supposition even that the south will triumph, 
the south would not and could not be the sincere ally of Mexico. Gentlemen, you remem- 
ber all those piratical and filibustering expeditions, undertaken by Lopez against Havana, 
by Walker against Nicaragua, all those attempts at conquest, that invasion of Texas, about 
fifteen years ago. All these attempts at aggrandizement were a political necessity for the 
south ; slavery, left to itself d!hd not propagated, was necessarily borne down and over- 
thrown by the movement of ideas and of interests. It was necessary to seek recruits in 
order to repair the Josses which were experienced. Now, I assert that, even if the south 
should succeed in effecting a separation, it would be found an ally of a few days perhaps, 
but one which, threatened on the north by its rival, would be more than ever pressed to 
expand itself into Mexico itself with all the energy which characterizes the race inhabiting 
the south of the republic, and the consequence would be that the establishment which we 
propose to make in Mexico would have for its first enemy that very south, on the alliance 
of which we had counted. 

From this point of view, the idea was not well founded. But this is not all. To found 
an empire, the requisite elements are necessary. It is not enough to change the form of 
government, to change its name, in order to regenerate it. 

The Mexican republic had reached a very sad condition. It is not I who assert it ; it is 
the delegates of the Junta, or of the Assembly of Notables, as they call it. I believe, who, 
beiug sent to the Archduke Maximilian to offer him the throne, express themselves as fol- 
lows in reference to their country: 

" After this, it is not surprising to sir highway robbers occupy the most elevated posts, 
to see the dilapidation of the revenues of the treasury, that of the goods of the clergy con- 
fiscated unjustly and without any profit to the country. The so-called reform has gathered 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 283 

around it only vagabonds and bandits, who, under this popular standard, very popular stan- 
dard indeed, have ravaged, burned the harvests and villages, and sacked the large cities," 
&c, &c. I suppress the rest. 

It is certain that there has been, and that there is yet, immense disorder in Mexico. 
Now, truly, it would be a very pretty thing to believe that, because in the place of a Pres- 
ident you will have a chief who will style himself Emperor, everything will be transformed, 
that this chronic disorder will disappear, that prosperity will be renewed, in a word, that 
there will be founded a potent state of society, of such a character as to insure respect to 
itself. Let us not forget that the troubles, the misfortunes, the civil war, which now des- 
olate the United States are a temporary accident. In one way or other this war will have an 
end, and then you may be assured that the republic or the republics of the United States will 
regard with evil eye the establishment of a monarchical flag on their frontiers. 

It has been said that we have no concessions to make to this American prejudice which 
wishes that the powers of Europe should have no right to take possession of any part of 
the soil of any portion of American territory. 

I do not examine their right in this matter, but I ask you whether it is possible for 
France to wage war against a republic with which we have always maintained the best un- 
derstanding, against a republic which owes to us, in a great measure, its independence, 
which sympathizes with us, and which constitutes for us a useful and often indispensable 
counterpoise to the naval power of England. 

However, we have gone to Mexico and we desire to create, to prepare a new government 
for Mexico. Mexico, you know, was divided, like most other countries, into two great fac- 
tions, the clerical party and the liberal party. 

The clerical party is in Mexico pretty much what it is everywhere else, powerful, rich, 
marvellously skilful in appropriating to itself the richest and most fertile lands, but, as a 
political party, behind the age, intolerant, exclusive, aiming at impossibilities. To it reli- 
gious toleration is the abomination of desolation ; to it liberty of worship, liberty of the 
press, all liberty, in a word, is the height of anarchy and disorder ; it can make no com- 
promise whatever with the principles which are now the very principles of modern society. 
The clerical party was for a long time dominant in Mexico, and the sad state in which this 
domination placed Mexico proves that its administration was not good. 

Desperate efforts have been made for some years by a fraction of the country to deliver it 
from the brutalizing system bequeathed to it by Spain. This is what has given birth to 
what is called the liberal party. 

I do not come here to pronounce the apology of the Mexican liberal party. That party, 
like the other — both almost alike in fact — bears the traces of the unfortunate condition to 
which the country has been reduced. 

But, in the end, the principles of the liberal party are our principles ; they are the prin- 
ciples professed by the members of this assembly, the principles of the French revolution 
and of modern civilization. To sustain them, that party makes efforts unfortunately com- 
bined with acts of violence which I do not wish to justify, no more than I wish to justify 
those of their adversaries. 

But, in the end, if we were absolutely forced, which I do not believe we are, to interfere 
in the affairs of that country, I assert that our natural ally would be the party that professes 
the same principles that we do, and not the party against which we are obliged to struggle 
in France, against which we are obliged to struggle at Rome, [murmurs of dissatisfaction 
from some benches,] and which everywhere teaches, as an article of faith, the very negation 
of the principles which form the basis of modern public law. 

Voices around the speaker. Good, good. 

M. Gueroult. We have, then, gentlemen, relied on the clerical party. 

I willingly pass over any reference to certain acts of the French administration, unfor- 
tunate sequestrations, irritating measures of sequestration applied to the property of persons 
who were only guilty, after all, of defending what they believed to be the independence of 
their country. For, in brief, this expedition has been commenced with the declaration that 
it was undertaken in order to deliver Mexico. To deliver Mexico ! From whom, and from 
what? Wheie is the foreigner attacking Mexico? If they fight in Mexico, it is the Mex- 
cans themselves that fight, and it seems to me that the species of liberation which we have 
undertaken in their favor singularly resembles that which the Prussians pretended to exer- 
cise in our regard when they invaded France in 1792 and in 1815. 

Several voices. That's true ! Good! 

M. Gueroult. The Mexicans are not at all thankful to us for the service which we wish 
to render them. They only ask one thing of us, that is, that we should stay at home and 
let them attend to their own business in peace. 

At present, as the country is fatigued, as a new regime is promised to it, as the French 
army, with its admirable discipline, reconciles by its presence even those whose hopes it 
goes to overthrow, it happens that there is a sort of pacification in Mexico, and that we have 



284 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

been well received there in the beginning. But the difficulties have not been slow to 
manifest themselves 

There has been a Junta instituted in the city of Mexico. A decree of the French author- 
ities has instituted that Junta, which itself has nominated an Assembly of Notables. All 
this is done under French influence. That Assembly of Notables, which was said to contain 
representatives of all opinions, I have a list of here with the designation of all the members ; 
not one of them belongs to what is called the liberal party. 

But at last a provisional government composed of three members has been placed over 
all this machinery. This is composed of the archbishop of Mexico, General Almonte, (who 
has played a considerable part in this whole affair, and who, it is said, was the first insti- 
gator of the expedition,) and, lastly, General Salas. 

It was not very difficult to foresee that this alliance with the clerical party would not 
hold together, and if you will permit me I will proceed to read to you some sentences 
written in the month of August last, and which are no more than an anticipated narrative 
of the events which I will presently lay before you : 

"The presence of the archbishop of Mexico in the provisional governments indicative 
of a state of things full of difficulties When General Forey expresses the desire that 
liberty of worship should be acknowledged, he renders himself the exponent of a sentiment 
wholly French ; but he need not count on the assistance of the archbishop of Mexico to 
cause it to be proclaimed. It is not in his part, nor in the nature of things. Our bishops, 
who have been living for seventy-four years under the regime of the freedom of worship, 
have not yet recognized it. The Pope does not recognize it ; we cannot expect, then, that 
the Mexican clergy should recognize it merely to gratify the Emperor. 

"We are proceeding, then, to find ourselves placed in the alternative either of obeying 
the inspirations of the party which calls us to Mexico, and then of disavowing, as far as 
lies in our power, all the principles for which we have been contending for three-quarters 
of a century, or else to proclaim French principles authoritatively, and then to turn our 
only partisans against us and combine in hostility towards us the liberals whom we have 
overthrown, and the clericals whom we have rejected. 

" Doubtless France is strong enough to make her will prevail ; but while consulting her 
own sentiments she cools those of her partisans and runs the lisk of being isolated, placed 
as she would be between those who are already indisposed against her for having come to 
Mexico and those who will be indisposed against us for having come there in order to oppose 
them in their absurd projects of reaction. 

" At bottom, it is the Roman question which is going to be reproduced on the other side 
of the ocean, at the distance of two thousand leagues from our froniiers." 

Several members. From what paper ? Who is the author of that article ? 

M. Gueroult. What I have read is an article from the Opinion Nationals. [Exclamations.] 

If I have permitted myself to read this article, it is because at this hour events have 
completely justified it ; I shall proceed to give you the proofs of it. 

Moreover, I will confess to you, after the manner in which the press has been spoken of 
in this hall for some time past, while the minister of state has told us that the effect of 
the press was to lead astray, to distort and to inflame public opinion ; after having heard 
the press defended by arguments which appeared to me still worse and move sorry than the 
attacks, I am not displeased to be able to show you that the press sometimes happens to 
study and to see clearly iuto questions, to announce in advance that which is likely to 
happen, and to give counsels which the government would not do ill to follow. 

M. Granier de Cassagnac. That is what remains to be demonstrated. 

M. Gueroult. These conflicts, announced as likely to occur between the clerical party 
and the French authorities, are in course of development at this very moment. 

Lastly, several judges had refused, on the intimation of certain members of the regency, to 
take cognizance of all cases relative to the goods of the clergy, which have been secularized 
in Mexico as they have been iu France. An order interposed issued in a very irregular 
way ; it was not signed by the representatives of French authority : it was signed only by 
an under secretary of state. This order enjoined ou the judges to take cognizance in future 
of all such questions as they had wished to abstain from. 

The archbishop of Mexico, Monseigneur Labastida, immediately protested ; I have here 
the protest which I would read to you if I did not fear to abuse your patience. 

Several members. Read it, read it. 

Other members. No, no. 

M. Gueroult. And from this time forward the acts of the regency are signed only by 
General Almonte and General Salas The signature of " Labastida" no longer figures in 
them. Here, then, is a commencement of dissension. 

Finally, gentlemen, we have arrived at a critical period. It is necessary to take some 
step. Since the expedition was undertaken, since it succeeded, since we took Puebla first 
and subsequently the city of Mexico itself, the candidacy of the Archduke Maximilian has 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 285 

been brought forward, has been affirmed, now it is considered as settled. I desire, with all 
my heart, that the Archduke Maximilian should accept ; I admire his courage, and I would 
not wish to shake him ; [laughter ;] only I would attach a great importance to the fact 
that France should not be responsible for anything that might be produced under the new 
regime which is to be installed in Mexico. I would not wish her to guarantee any loans. 
I would not wish her to leave her army in Mexico ; for, if her army should remain in 
Mexico, not only would she contract a kind of responsibility and identification of herself 
with all the events that might transpire there, but she would come in contact with an 
eventuality which would seem to me very much to be dreaded, and which might carry us 
very far beyond the sphere of the interests for which we have desired to provide. [Appro- 
bation from some benches.] 

It is not doubtful, gentlemen, that as soon as the civil war shall be terminated in the 
United States, you will see the United States legard with a most evil eye this monarchical 
establishment installed on their frontiers. Governments, governments of principle 
especially, are jealous, and you would certainly have no more reason to be displeased with 
the United States for not regarding with a favorable eye a monarchical establishment on 
their frontiers, than you would be astonished if the imperial government of France saw 
with an evil eye the establishment in Belgium of a republic, for example. 
Smoe voices. What would that have to do with us ? 
M. Granier de Cassagnac. And Switzerland. 

M. Gtjerotjlt. Switzerland has not been recently established. It was anterior to our 
government, which found it as it was, and must have accepted the neighborhood. But I 
believe that the propagandism of a different principle is never acceptable or agreeable to a 
neighboring government. 

In any case, it is incontestable that the situation in which we would be placed by this 
eventuality of a war with the United States is out of all proportion with what wisdom 
and the simplest elements of good sense would allow us to risk on that side. What 
interest have we in Mexico ? I have examined the question in a manner rather philosophic 
than political. In good faith, what was it that obliged us to go to Mexico? What 
immediate advantage can we derive from the measure ? Do you think that we can effect 
an establishment there which, in a given time, could cover our expenses ? We have in 
Algeria an example which I pray you to consider. Here are thirty-four years that Algeria 
is in our hands ; it does not pay expenses. If you are in a condition to assume the 
guardianship of Mexico for fifty years, and to spend there 150 millions a year, I doubt not 
but that at this price you would reach a favorable result ; but I doubt whether any of you 
would be willing to engage in such an enterprise. The most reasonable step, in my 
opinion, would be to return and to return immediately. 

Since the last accounts that reached us from Mexico, it seems that instructions more 
conciliatory and based on a more exact knowledge of the country have reached General 
Bazaine, whose excellent intentions are appreciated both by the Mexicans and by the 
French. I say instructions more conciliatory ; in fact, less harshness is manifested towards 
adversaries, and if a work of conciliation could be attempted, it would certainly be under 
these auspices. Well, all I ask is that the government should be pleased to give us some 
assurances in this respect. 

In the amendment which we have presented, and which I have the honor to develop 
before you, we demand an immediate withdrawal. I request permission to explain this 
expression. I did not draw up the amendment, but I signed it. I pray you to allow me 
to tell you how I understand it It is clear that the immediate withdrawal of our troops 
cannot be demanded. [Interruption.] 

A voice. Wherefore do you demand it for the amendment ? 

M. Gtjerotjlt. It is clear that everything cannot be abandoned in twenty-four hours ; 
but what can be done is to take immediately a firm resolution not to prolong an expedition 
which, it must be said, is a failure. [Vehement disapprobation ] 

You may be persuaded, gentlemen, that we will obtain nothing from Mexico ; you may 
be persuaded that if France wished to be stubborn and to remain there in order to defray 
the expenses of the expedition, she would do as bad a thing as she did when, to insure the 
payment of a debt of 60 millions, she spent 300 millions. Persist now, and you will not 
get clear with a thousand millions. 

Gentlemen, it is no easy thing to occupy Mexico. I read in the papers that Maximilian 
demands, as a prerequisite to his acceptance of the crown, that the Mexican people should 
pronounce for him by means of universal suffrage. Gentlemen, to attain that it would be 
necessary to be^master of Mexico ; it would be necessary to occupy it. Well, permit me 
to tell you we do not possess the twentieth part of it. [Cries of dissent.] Mexico is an 
. immense country cut up by plains but very little inhabited, often uncultivated, in which 
everything is wanting, even water. 

If it is desired to have a permanent army of occupation there, it is not with 30,000 men 



286 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

that you will do it, nor even with 100,000 men. You will please remember that in 
Algeria, the surface of which is about the third part of France, we have had for a long 
time 100,000 men to run after Abd-el-Kader, without catching him, and restrain the Arabs. 

A member. He has been caught. 

M. Guekoult. He was caught at last, but at the end of seventeen years. 

Now, gentlemen, if we remain in Mexico, if we desire to occupy it in a permanent way, 
it will be necessary to have garrisons in all the large towns — it will be necessary to have 
movable colonies. The Mexican people are accustomed to partisan warfare ; long years 
of civil war have created a population perfectly suitable for that kind of trade. If you 
engage in such an affair, I know not how you will be able to get out of it. I add that if 
the civil war ceases in the United States, the American government, without any declara- 
tion of war, without engaging in any direct struggle with France, can let loose on Mexico 
no less than fifty thousand volunteers, filibusters, wh^rn peace will render disposable for 
such a purpose in the States of the north ; it is impossible to foresee the quantity of regular 
troops that would be necessary to keep the field and maintain the security of the country 
against predatory bands of that kind. 

In my opinion, there would be a most serious danger in the prolongation of the expedi- 
tion. The end that was proposed to be attained I consider as not having been reached, as 
I mentioned to you just now. Consequently, if you believe me, we will not make much 
difficulty about the conditions of evacuation ; we will leave to the government all the 
time necessary to prepare itself to effect it, to do it with honor and dignity, to afford pro- 
tection to those who have confided in us and in the selection of whom we have sometimes 
committed the fault of not being severe enough ; and then w r e will pray the government 
to bring back our troops to France. As to questions of indemnity, as to any benefits that 
you may be able to derive thence, take my advice, do not ask any ; if with the 200 millions 
which we have paid this year, we have no more than 100 or 200 millions more to pay, we 
shall have done a good thing relatively ; for if we stay there, I tell you, it will not be by 
hundreds but by thousands of millions that we should have to count. 



Speich of M. Thiers. 



Corps Legislative, Session of the 26th of January. — Presidency of his excellency the 

Due of Morny. 

M. Tuiebs. Gentlemen : Though the amendment to which I have attached my signature 
is not actually in discussion, I have sought occasion to speak, because I do not come to dis- 
cuss such or such an amendment, but the question itself ; and I must forthwith acknowledge 
to you that, attaching to that question a considerable degree of importance, and desiring to 
address you at some length, I have hastened to obtain the floor, for fear that I should after- 
wards find your attention too much fatigued. Perhaps, when you will have heard me, you 
will pardon me for this solicitude ; and, as to the amendments, I hasten to say that the 
one which will carry the truth to the foot of the throne in the most deferential and most 
respectful form will always be that which I shall prefer. [Good, good.] 

If the only question were to pronounce an opinion on the past, I should not insist ; I 
would willingly imitate those merchants who carry some affairs to the account of profit and 
loss, in order to be no more troubled with them. But they act thus only in regard to affairs 
which no longer cost them any sacrifice. Unfortunately, it is not so with the Mexican ex- 
pedition. We have been told that it cost twelve millions a month, and you know that, when 
such enterprises are in question, the months roll away rapidly. As for me, I am convinced 
that it will cost much more ; but that is only a minor consideration. 

Gentlemen, we .are at a distance of three thousand leagues from our shores — at a distance 
of thirty-five days' navigation — with forty thousand Frenchmen, seven or eight thousand 
sailors, occupied at various services, without counting some thousands of auxiliaries—and 
all this for what purpose? It can no longer be ignored now. The prince who has been 
called to reign over Mexico is soon going to pass through Paris, to embark in one of our 
harbors, and to find himself borne towards Vera Cruz Thus we have gone so far with a 
considerable part of our forces — why ? To found a great empire in the New World. 

Indeed, gentlemen, I confess to you that before such an enterprise my reason remains 
confounded. It is possible that I may have been educated in idttis of too much strictness ; 
but in the present state of the world, to undertake the foundation of a great monarchy, at 
such a distance, without any determinate end, without any certain utility, I must say con- 
founds my reason. 

Yesterday one of our young colleagues, while doing me the honor of quoting me, re- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS 287 

minded me, or thought he reminded me, that in England no opposition was ever offered to 
nor difficulties thrown in the way of the great enterprises in India. Our young colleague, 
who is a very diligent student, will not fail to read the discussions in the English Parlia- 
ment, and he will be able to see how far he has been correct in his as-sertion ; he will learn 
that there never has been any great enterprise in India which has not been vehemently and 
severely discussed ; he will find the famous trials of Lord Clive and AVarren Hastings ; and 
he will see, finally, that only a few years ago the East India Company was definitively dis- 
possessed of its power, merely on account of its imprudent and dangerous enterprises in the 
kingdom of Oude. Everything is discussed in England, and practical matters never lose 
by it. 

But since it has been granted to us, gentlemen, to strive to cause the truth to reach the 
foot of the throne, let us profit by the occasion ; for there will never be an occasion more 
momentous or more useful for so doing. As to me, I regard it as a duty to make the truth 
known ; and I request your permission to examine as briefly as possible (and that will 
always be too long for my convenience) the following questions : By what succession of 
ideas have we been led from the first act of defending our fellow-citizens to the more serious 
enterprise of founding a monarchy in the New World ? What connexion was there between 
these two purposes ? By what sequence of circumstances have we been led from one of 
these purposes to the other ? And now, are there any serious chances of success ; and if we 
succeed, what utility can be derived for France, which, after all, ought always to be the 
final end of all our enterprises ? 
M. Ernest Picajrd. Good. 

M. Thiers. These are the questions which I wish to debate ; you see that they are well 
worthy of discussion. 

I have fortified myself with all the information that science, politics, public economy, 
can offer, and, perhaps, if you are willing to listen to me with patience, you will find that 1 
you will not have entirely lost the time which you may give to me. [Speak, speak.] 

Gentlemen, ia order that you may properly understand the exposition which I am going 
to make to you, I must give you some details on the nature of the relations which the 
states of Europe maintain with the states of America. 

I may declare it at the outset, these relations are extremely difficult. We must distin- 
guish North from South America. In North America our fellow-citizens have always found 
a field for an immense commerce, which, you know, has reached the value of five hundred 
millions. They have always, moreover, found there perfect security — I speak of the times 
preceding the civil war. Sometimes they have had to suffer from the rudeness of demo- 
cratic manners ; but a counti y can no more be reproached with its manners than with its i ! 
climate. It is a fact, that we have always found perfect security in North America. But 
we must say that security was due to a vigorous government, jealous of its honor and dig- 
nity, and from which proud and potent England herself has had more than one affront to 
swallow. However it be, it would be very desirable that we had found in South America 
such relations as those which we have found in North America. 

In South America, with the single exception of Brazil, of which I shall speak presently, 
we have found anarchy. You know that when, at the commencement of the present 
century, the Spanish colonies desired to separate from the mother country, they modelled 
their institutions on those of North America ; but they were not so well prepared for re- 
publicanism. You know that when the colonists who peopled North America emigrated 
beyond the seas, they were already veritable republicans in their manners and their opin- 
ions ; they were, moreover, industrious men, devoted to labor, and there is -no better 
soother for the passions than labor. But those southern populations, whom, with some 
complacency, we style the Latin race, were scarcely prepared for republicanism when they 
separated from the mother country. 

As far as opinions were concerned, they had only those which existed in Spain two centuries 
ago. They were fiery in their manners, turbulent, and disinclined to labor. Republican- 
ism has not succeeded among them ; for fifty years they have merely dragged out a miserable 
existence, full of inconvenience to strangers domiciled among them. Those unfortunate 
strangers have been harassed in a hundred ways. 

In the first place, these governments of the south are always in difficulty ; they borrow, 
and when they have borrowed they never pay. This is the first cause of claims against 
them. Then strangers, who spend twenty, thirty, and forty years in those countries, arc 
soon confounded with the inhabitants themselves, and it is sought to impose on them, 
sometimes, military service, always forced loans and taxes for purposes of war. They com- 
plain to their native governments, and invoke their assistance. This is another subject 
for reclamation and demand of redress. 

But the most serious of all is this : In those continually agitated countries, where there 
is no vigilant police, as in the old states of Europe, neither cities, nor country, nor high- 
ways offer any security. Sometimes the doors of houses are forcibly broken in ; more 



288 • MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

frequently the farms are invaded and public conveyances are stopped on the highways. 
Violences, robberies, sometimes assassinations, are committed ; and it has been recognized 
as so difficult not only to hunt out the guilty parties, but to bring them to punishment in 
a country in which the police is a nullity and justice is weak, that people have almost 
renounced all idea of obtaining justice, and have converted all their grievances into claims 
for money. 

So there has been introduced into the language of the country, into diplomatic language, 
a certain expression ; it is that of foreign agreement. Whenever European nations have 
had occasion to complain, treaties are made which are called foreign agreements ; and 
what proves to you the singularity of that state of affairs is the fact that, in making a very 
simple calculation, I have found that foreign agreements, those demands of indemnity, 
were always proportioned to the extent of the commerce which each European nation car- 
ried on with that country This is a proof, gentlemen, that in that anarchy there is at 
least that species of impartiality which induces it to treat all the world alike. 

Well, when we desire to address ourselves to those governments we meet with very 
great difficulties. To whom do we address ourselves ? To anarchy. If we demand security 
of it, it cannot give it. If we demand payment of its debts, it does not possess the means. 
We find ourselves, therefore, in extreme embarrassment. S:> people have been very cir- 
cumspect, and have taken care to keep themselves within the English rule. That rule is : 
When those governments can be reached by the maritime way, a degree of severity is 
manifested, and England has always taken care to be severe ; but when they cannot be so 
reached, people are more sparing of menaces which cannot always be carried into effect. 

I will be told that this course is not a very manly one. I grant it ; but allow me to say 
that honor stops where the means stop ; and I will cite an instance to you which is some 
years old. 

Prussia is assuredly a very proud and very brave nation. Now, you remember that a 
Prussian vessel, bearing the royal 'standard, stopped some years ago on the coasts of Riff. 
It experienced a terrible attack ; there were many killed and wounded ; the prince himself 
ran great risk ; everybody then said, " Prussia is going to send out an expedition." But 
Prussia, proud and brave as she was, yet thoughtful, never sent out any expedition, be- 
cause, in fact, 6he had neither the interest nor the means to do so 

The English rule of acting by the maritime way is, then, neither so bad nor so humble ; 
and if I apply it to past events, you will see that it is at bottom what, up to this time, 
everybody has done. 

For instance, you all know that on the upper Parana, in Paraguay, Dr. Francia estab- 
lished himself and reigned for twenty-seven years. M. Bonpland, the colleague and trav- 
elling companion of Humboldt, in whom all Europe was interested, lived there for twenty 
years, detained by the government of Paraguay. Learned Europe, with one voice, de- 
manded his release, and yet it never entered into any one's mind to send out an expedition 
to release Dr. Bonpland. 

In the lower Plata, an odious tyrant, Rosas, treated the French in an abominable man- 
ner ; he had many of them massacred by bis orders ; and this was not in consequence of 
any anarchy ; it was his own will, his own ferocity. Our vessels could have reached him, 
and sailed right into the harbor either of Montevideo or of Buenos Ayres. For my part, I 
advocated severe measures at that time. My opinion did not prevail, and yet force was 
employed Vessels were sent out, and a treaty was obtained by the only means possible — 
by maritime means. 

In regard to Mexico, of which there was reason to complain, in 1S3S Admiral Baudin 
was commissioned with the execution of a vigorous stroke ; it was executed, and the con- 
sequence was that, for a certain number of years, the Mexicans retained the recollection of 
it, aud our fellow-countrymen were not guaranteed on the highways — oh no, for, what- 
ever is done, we will not succeed in rendering the roads safe in Mexico any more thau in 
the kingdom of Naples; but we did succeed in having our countrymen treated with more 
respect. 

I have deemed these reflections necessary in order to let you understand what the nature 
is of the relations between the states of Europe and those of America, aud what kind of 
repression we can employ there. 

When our last difficulties with Mexico commenced tie state of the country was this : 
We had, in regard to it, only very incomplete, very uucertain statistics, to which it is diffi- 
cult enough to attach any credit ; however, I believe we are not far from the truth in esti- 
mating the population of Mexico at eight millions. Of these eight millions there are five 
millions of native Indians, who are worthy people, laborious and patient, but kept in a 
state of deplorable abjection aud ignorance. And then there are three millions of Span- 
iards, pure or mixed, who are the active and influential portion of the population. 

What questions are agitated among those three millions of Spaniards, pure or mixed .' 
In truth, the very questions which have been agitated in Europe for three-quarters of a 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 289 

century between what is called the old rigime and the new one. There are two parties 
there — the party which styles itself conservative, and which its adversaries call the clerical 
party, the reactionary party, &c, &c. ; and opposed to it, the party of the new rigime, which 
styles itself liberal, and which its adversaries compliment with the names of anarchical 
party, revolutionary party, &c, &c, &c. 

You know, by what passes under our own eyes, what courtesy parties use towards each 
other. [Laughter ] Well, gentlemen, as far as I am concerned I would give them both 
all these names, good and bad, because they deserve them all in turn, according to their 
conduct. But here, in your presence, I shall employ only those qualifications which will 
properly express my ideas, the party of the old and the party of the new regime. 

In what position was the party of the old rigime ? There were in that party — gentlemen, 
these details are necessary in order to appreciate properly the situation in which we aTe 
going to find ourselves placed in Mexico — there were in that party which calls itself con- 
servative some great families of the highest respectability. They descend from the ancient 
conquerors of Mexico, from the old viceroys, and from some merchants, who acquired and 
retained great fortunes. These are families, I repeat, of the greatest respectability, which 
entertain the very beautiful dream, which I would wish to see realized for them, that 
Mexico should become a Brazil. 

I repeat it, I would gladly wish to see its realization. But let us see how Brazil has be- 
come what it is When we took the very unfortunate notion of invading Portugal in 1808, 
the house of Braganza seized upon a very happy idea, that of quitting Portugal and retiring 
to Brazil. Thanks to that resolution, it did not lose Portugal, which was restored to it in 
1815, and it preserved Brazil. How did that happen? In the simplest manner possible. 
There was no interruption of the royal authority, and the people of Brazil, touched at see- 
ing their ancient royal family seek an asylum in their bosom, became most devotedly 
attached to it. And we must add that that royal family, when the liberal movement 
manifested itself very strongly in America, had the good sense to yield to it in a certain 
measure, and the result is that Brazil, instead of reaching republicanism, has stopped at 
constitutional monarchy. 

I know that the expression is not in favor here, but still every one must be permitted 
to speak his own language ; I request your permission to speak mine. 

A voice. Constitutional monarchy is in great favor. 

M. Thiees. Under that constitutional monarchy Brazil has found order in the first place — 
for me, that is a matter of primary importance — and then liberty and a growing prosperity. 

Now, is it easy to procure for those very respectable Mexicans of whom I have spoken 
the blessings enjoyed by Brazil ? Unfortunately it is very difficult, for whither should we 
go to choose a prince for them? If we followed analogies we would proceed to ask one of 
Spain ; but. as I mentioned to you, there has been an interruption of relations there, and 
the recollections of the war of independence have left such profound traces that the Mexi- 
cans have an excessive dislike for Spaniards. Then if, in default of a prince naturally 
indicated by his origin, we proceed to make an arbitrary selection, which I would not pre- 
sume to characterize as a capricious one, we expose ourselves to the choice of princes who 
have no recommendation. 

We are, therefore, placed between these two difficulties in Mexico. If we take the one 
who would be the natural prince of the country, we find the recollections of the war of 
independence and the antipathies which it has engendered ; if we proceed to take a prince 
outside of the Spanish royal house, we find a prince without recommendation and without 
support. Moreover, the people have assumed the bad habits of republicanism — not the 
good, but the bad habits ; these habits they have, and it is very difficult to make them 
change. I allow myself, then, to call this very honorable wish of the rich Mexicans, this 
wish of which I would be much pleased to see the realization — I allow myself, I say, to call 
it a beautiful dream. 

Moreover, that party has an ally ; that ally is the clergy. Oh ! if that Mexican clergy 
had the virtues, the enlightened minds, of our European clergy, I would have nothing to 
say. But that clergy, (I wish to use only the most polite expressions,) that clergy has, I 
shall say, the manners of tropical climes. [Laughter ] It is rich, very rich, or at least it 
was rich ; but it was not as wise as it was rich : it has taken part in the troubles of its 
country ; its property has been taken and sold. It was to receive, not the value of the 
property, but the interest. The Mexican government has sold the property at a con- 
temptibly small price, as always happens in such cases, and in place of it it has given to 
the clergy an annual appropriation, which is not always paid. 

What does the clergy wish ? It wishes to have its property restored ; and so this con- 
servative and very respectable party, but very small in numbers, has for its only supporters 
a clergy which aspires to recover its property, and in opposition to it a population of three 
millions of souls, comprising the middle classes and the common people, and in the ranks 
of which are found all the purchasers of the national goods. 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 19 



290 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Well, do you imagine that it is a very easy work to rest the support of a government 
on one of these parties, when in the other there are included nearly the whole population, 
as well as the purchasers of the national goods ? 

Yet this is the question which was encountered in Mexico when Miramon and President 
Juarez found themselves in a struggle with each other, and on that occasion the two parties 
showed their real strength. 

Miramon is a young man, celebrated for his courage, but not so much for his prudence ; 
he was at the head of a military force and occupied the city of Mexico. President Juarez, 
who is of Indian origin, and a lawyer by profession, of whom his countrymen do not say 
that he is an unworthy man, (we must tell the truth, although it be of our enemy,) possesses 
a character essentially constituted of obstinacy and stubbornness. Miramon was with the 
army at the city of Mexico. President Juarez was at Vera Cruz, without a dollar, without 
any force whatever ; but, with his patient character, he waited, and a short time afterwards 
Miramon was obliged to fly, and Juarez entered the capital of Mexico really as the chief of 
the party, which now is the only powerful one in Mexico. 

This took place in the month of January, 1861. It was at that time that our difficulties 
with Mexico commenced. In the beginning all the reasonable men of Mexico desired that 
all enlightened and considerate people in the country should rally around President Juarez, 
and should form for him a moderate administration, which might govern in the name of 
the ideas represented by Juarez, and which might govern with that moderation which 
enlightened persons always bring into government. Ho this passed in the first days. 

Juarez formed a moderate ministry, which they call the Zarco ministry, at the head of 
which was a man of much ability, and, as a proof of his intentions, he resisted his congress, 
which was composed of men of very radical opinions. So every person in those early days 
wished him success, as it was seen that, in fact, he sought to realize the desire of all honest 
people to govern moderately with the aid of the strongest party. 

We had as our minister to Mexico M. De Saligny, who entered into negotiations with 
President Juarez in order to settle our difficulties. An agreement — one of those called 
foreign agreements — was effected. M. De Saligny appeared satisfied ; our government, was 
so likewise ; and in those first days all went well. 

But this was not all : after having signed that agreement with us, it was necessary to pay. 
When the clay of payment came it was impossible to pay. M. De Saligny was very much 
excited at this refusal to execute solemn agreements. It was natural. He was entreated 
to wait ; he did wait for a time ; but whilst he was waiting he learned that congress, in 
spite of the president, in spite of the minister, had passed a law, in the month of July, 
1861, by which they suspended the execution of all these foreign agreements for two years. 

This time M. De Saligny manifested much indignation, and I can conceive how much 
he was justified in so doing. Nevertheless, they waited upon him ; they told him all that 
had been done to prevent this occurrence ; they promised him to use the greatest efforts 
with congress to have this law repealed ; but they were unable to keep their word, although 
they succeeded afterwards. 

But do you know what the motive was for this suspension of the foreign agreements? 
Here it is. At that time the remnants of the vanquished party, at the head of which was 
General Marquez, (now our ally,) committed many excesses on the highways. It was 
necessary to send the army in pursuit of them ; the army had not been paid for a long time, 
and they had taken out of the treasury the sum of four hundred thousand piastres, or about 
two millions of francs, which were needed to pay off the army. 

M. De Saligny suspended intercourse ; he did not break it off entirely, but merely sus- 
pended it, and referred the question to the French government. The English minister, 
who had claims to make much more considerable than ours, because the English hold nearly 
all the debt of Mexico — the English minister, Mr. Wyke, was delighted to place himself 
behind the French minister ; he followed his example, and, like him, referred the question 
to the government of London. The European governments were then intrusted with the 
affair. 

I shall not dispute it ; we had right on our side. They had signed a treaty and they had 
not executed it. Yet if we had opposed to us a European government, powerful, rich, able 
to pay, unwilling to do so, I can understand how, having right on our side, and our dignity 
beiug interested in compelling the execution of engagements assumed, we should show 
ourselves peremptory. But perhaps in regard to a government which had not been led 
into that state by any malice, which was very much embarrassed, which promised to do 
better when it reached a state of solvency, perhaps it would have been better to have had 
patience for a little while. 

Bat there was a way of acting by which that resolution of breaking with Mexico would 
not have been a fault. This way was very simple ; it was to adopt the English plan. The 
English, also, had resolved to break off relations, but they had their means already pre- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 291 

pared, which was an easy one, and which I regret much not to have been employed ; for if 
it had been adopted by us we would not be in the embarrassment in which we now are. 

The plan is this : It was to have recourse to what the lawyers call a distress ; it was 
simply to seize upon the ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz, (it is by these two ports that all 
the external commerce of Mexico is carried on,) to seize the custom-houses, and to keep them 
until complete payment was effected. Such was, in fact, the plan which the English had 
resolved to follow. They declared, indeed, from the very beginning that they were deter- 
mined to take and keep the two ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz, with the aid of a few 
vessels and some marines accustomed to the climate, and to confine themselves to this single 
operation. 

But it has been said : "This plan was not good, because the Mexicans by removing their 
custom-housts backwards could elude the measure and render it inefficacious." 

I consider the objection very weak ; for by removing the custom-houses backwards the 
Mexicans could not have removed the two ports backwards, and the English would have 
remained masters of the two points of arrival. They would, therefore, be in a state to 
insure the payment of the custom-house duties on all articles of merchandise that should 
be presented there for entrance. I persist, therefore, in believing that this plan was excel- 
lent and the only reasonable one. 

Unfortunately, the Mexican exiles — for some of those very respectable Mexicans, com- 
posing the monarchical party at Mexico, had been obliged to leave their country — had come 
to Europe to endeavor to propagate their ideas there, a course of action which was assuredly 
very lawful. 

The idea which they sought most to present before the world was that Mexico was so 
weary of agitation that there would be no difficulty to be met with, and that as soon as a 
European flag should appear on the shores of Mexico there would be an instantaneous and 
general uprising ; that the European prince who should be sent out would be received with 
acclamation, and would ascend a perfectly solid throne. This is what those Mexican exiles 
had endeavored to circulate among European courts. 

In London they would not listen to them ; they were told that there was no intention to 
interfere in the internal affairs of Mexico, and that the English would confine themselves 
to occupying the ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz. 

In France the ideas of the Mexican exiles had been received with more favor. People 
allowed themselves to be persuaded, (and the events that followed prove the truth of the 
assertion,) people allowed themselves to be persuaded that at the first appearance of the 
European flag in Mexico there would be a general uprising ; that no difficulty would be 
encountered ; that thus all the advantages would be procured for Mexico which Brazil enjoys, 
and that we would have the honor not only of causing justice to be rendered to our country- 
men, but also of effecting the complete pacification of that fine country. 

I reproach no one for having been misled by these representations. I would gladly wish 
the delusion had been no delusion ; but unfortunately it was a veritable chimera. It was 
always received at Paris as truth. 

At this moment Spain entered on the stage. You know how highsouled and generous 
that nation is, whose fortune has sometimes wavered, whose heart never! She had just 
had considerable success in Morocco ; she was very proud of it ; and already the national 
imagination dreamed of the grandeurs of the monarchy of Charles the Fifth. It was the 
moment when the war in America commenced, and you remember perhaps that at that 
period the great republic of the north was as much decried as the republics of the south. 
It was said everywhere — I have heard it said, and you may have heard it also — that America 
was disgusted with its governments, and that all the old colonies would willingly return to 
their mother countries. A singular incident which occurred at the time was of such a 
nature as to confirm this sort of illusion. Dominica, (you know that this is the part of 
Santo Domingo which had always belonged to Spain,) Dominica rejected the republican 
form of government to re-establish and proclaim the Spanish authority. 

I remember that after that incident it would have been difficult to persuade the public 
that this was not the sentiment of nearly all the people of America. Spain permitted her- 
self to be led away by the idea ; she accepted the proffered return to her authority, and 
this now costs her a fierce war in which she expends the products of Havana and her best 
soldiers. 

Well, Spain broke off relations with Mexico for the same motives as you ; she broke off 
for a foreign treaty to which they were unable to do honor at its failure, and she hastened 
to fit out a great expedition at Havana. What did Spain dream at that moment ? I would 
not presume to say. I have read all the documents, French, English, and Spanish, and I 
confess that all my habits of seeking to penetrate the truth in historic documents have not 
yet clearly shown me what the real ideas of Spain were. What I believe is, that the 
nation inclined considerably towards the idea of a great enterprise against Mexico, but that 
the government, at the head of which was a very prudent man, Marshal O'Donnell, whilst 



292 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

to some extent flattering the tendencies of the nation, resisted, however, because prudeDce 
showed them the danger of engaging in such an enterprise. 

Here I must say that if an adventure of this kind, which I shall always style an adven- 
ture, whoever it is that undertakes it, was excusable, it was so almost on the part of Spain. 
Spain has in the Gulf of Mexico a point of immense interest — Havana. You know that 
Havana is a magnificent colony, one of the finest in the universe, and that it is for Spain 
what Java is for Holland. Spain had, therefore, an immense interest there ; she had, 
moreover, an admirable base of operations. 

That Spain, therefore, having great interests, a base of operations in Havana, should 
h-ive been tempted with such an enterprise, I believe must be considered a fault ; however, 
for my part, from the point of view of the severest policy, I should have been somewhat 
indulgent towards her. But frankly, it is towards her alone, I must say, that I am indul- 
gent, in the consideration of that dieam of erecting at present a great monarchy in the 
New World. When she learned that Fiance and England occupied themselves with the 
affairs of Mexico, she hastened to open a negotiation with the English and French cabinets. 
At London she was well received ; she was told that they asked nothing better than to 
have her for an auxiliary, but that they did not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of 
Mexico. They declared this to her in the most formal manner. I have here the English 
collection, which is full of these despatches They declared to her positively that they 
wished only to seize the ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz This declaration cooled off Spain 
very considerably. Still she addressed herself to the French cabinet 

In France they did not tell her that they wished to confine themselves to seizing the 
ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz ; they entered into the monarchical ideas of Spain ; they 
only told her, and with reason, that they could not adopt a Spanish prince They main- 
tained, and it was natural, the principle which has prevailed in the affairs of Greece : 
it is that none of the powers which concurred in this enterprise should see a prince of its 
own race advanced. 

This very reasonable declaration cooled Spain off still more, and then she gave her ad- 
hesion to the English plan. I do not say that this was done entirely without regret, entirely 
without ulterior intentions ; I believe that Spain in adhering to the English plan said to 
herself, that perhaps the Spanish fortune would smile upon her, and that though they did 
not wish to effect any more than the English plan, some happy accident might perhaps pre- 
sent something better. 

It is clear that she appeared resigned to do all that England wished, and they drew up 
the treaty of October, 1861. This treaty, although short, would be too long to read to 
you. I shall merely analyze it. 

It was, if I may say so, but a mere negation ; for England wished only a maritime ex- 
pedition tending to occupy the ports of Vera Cruz and Tampico ; Spain desired a monarchy, 
but for a prince of her own ; and France, also, desired a monachy, but for an Austrian 
prince. 

With such a disagreement, it was impossible, in signing a treaty, to sign anything but 
an absolutely negative treaty, but which was not the less obligatory for all that ; and by 
that treaty they engaged to effect the mutual concurrence of the three nations for the sole 
purpose, says the treaty, of obtaining justice for the subjects of the three governments. 
They bound themselves not to make conquests, not to interfere with the internal govern- 
ment, to name a commission for the allotment of the indemnities, and then to inform the 
United States, in order that they might also unite in the intervention, if they judged it 
necessary. 

A very singular but very significant circumstance, and one wh'ch well proves the dispo- 
sition of mind in which each of the three nations was, is the number of the forces which 
each had offered. Spain, having already made great preparations at Havana, declared that 
she would send 6,000 men ; and we, who now wish to create a great monarchy in Mexico, 
offered 2,200 men, which proves that we had given full credence to the assurances of the 
Mexican exiles, who told us that at the very appearance of the European flags the country 
would immediately arise in insurrection. As to the English, who wished nothing of all 
this, they gave only 700 marines to occupy Vera Cruz and Tampico. 

Under these circumstances it was that the three nations began their action against Mexico. 
The Spaniards, who were the first on the scene of operation, and who set out from Ha- 
vana, arrived at Vera Cruz towards the middle of December. For their chief they had 
General Prim. It was an act of courtesy on the part of France, who was opposed to the 
selection of a Spanish prince, to accept a Spanish officer as the generalissimo of the expe- 
dition. 

All Europe knows General Prim. He is an officer of distinguished courage, of much 
ability, but who is fully endowed with all the Castilian haughtiness. 

General Prim having arrived at Havana, set out from thence to Vera Cruz, and with his 
9agacity, which is very great, commenced to observe the country. He soon saw that people 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 293 

had flattered themselves too much in Europe ; for during the month which he spent in 
waiting for us, the Mexican monarchical party, which they said was to rise at the first ap- 
pearance of the European flag, made no movement whatever. General Prim saw several 
members of this monarchical party, and to all of them he said : " We do not come here to 
effect a revolution ; but if you effect one without our interference, we will consider it good ; 
do it, if you can." Well, the monarchical party did nothing. 

People waited, and all that was seen was a marked movement of the country in favor of 
the government of President Juarez, because he was threatened by foreign nations 

The Mexicans retired ; they abandoned to us the ports which we had set out to occupy ; 
they established a cordon of guerillas around Vera Cruz, and formed the project, unfortunate 
for us, but for them very well conceived, of blockading us in some sort in the midst of the 
pestilence. 

The French arrived in their turn about twenty or twenty-five days after the Spaniards, 
and disembarked at Vera Cruz. They had for their commander a very distinguished officer, 
a man of ability and of much common sense, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere. He set him- 
self, like General Prim, about examining the disposition of the people's minds, and I could 
cite to you letters which he wrote to General Prim, and which have been published in the 
discussions in the Spanish senate, and in one of which I have remarked the following 
phrase, -which proves to you what opinion he formed of the state of affairs after a careful 
observation : 

He wrote thus to General Prim : ; ' I have always been disposed to agree with you in rec- 
ognizing the necessity we are under here to avoid embracing the cause of the party which 
composes the minority, and which has opposed to it the general opinion of the country." 

Such was the opinion formed by Admiral Jurien de la Gravi&re upon seeing the country ; 
but he acted like a prudent man, faithful to the instructions of his government, and waited. 
It was in vain to wait ; no one stirred. However, they could not remain indefi- 
nitely at Vera Cruz. Although it was winter, (they were in the month of January,) they 
suffered much in the very close encampments in which they were lodged. Already the 
Spaniards had 2,000 sick. We have not been told how many we had, but we had many, and 
especially among our marines, who are, in general, the greatest sufferers from these sorts 
of expeditions, in which they manifest the greatest devotedness, perhaps not always suffi- 
ciently noticed, [That's true ; good ;] our marine force, above all, suffered cruelly at Vera 
Cruz. As to the English, they had already 130 sick out of 700 sailors. 

General Prim, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, and Commodore Dunlop declared that they 
could not remain at Vera Cruz. They marched out from that city and encamped at some 
leagues' distance from thence, "at Medellin and at Tegeria. They selected somewhat better 
quarters there ; they procured provisions for themselves, and lived in somewhat better 
style. 

However, it was necessary to do something; it was more than a month since they had 
arrived ; it was necessary to come to some explanations with the Mexicans. They issued a 
proclamation, in which they announced to them that they came neither to conquer nor to 
revolutionize the country, but to have justice rendered to our countrymen ; and as they 
wished to give to this declaration the form of an ultimatum, they sought to come to an 
agreement in regard to the amount of claims. Each one produced his own amount. 

England produced hers, which was the most considerable, for the English hold nearly all the 
debt of Mexico. England demanded about seventeen millions of piastres, which makes about 
eighty-five millions of francs ; Spain eight millions of piastres, or forty millions of francs ; 
the other nations that had claims, about four millions of piastres, or twenty millions of 
francs; and, finally, we demanded twelve millions of piastres, or sixty millions of francs. 

This figure appeared a little surprising, because, after all the talk on the subject, people 
thought that the amount would not exceed ten millions. 

However, each party was allowed to set forth his own pretensions. But when all was 
added up, it was found that these sums combined amounted to forty millions of piastres, or 
two hundred millions of francs. They were somewhat scared at the idea of demanding such 
a sum from the Mexicans. 

Gentlemen, I shall speak to you presently, for a moment, of their budget, if you are not 
too much fatigued, [no, no ;] but you must forthwith know that the Mexican budget, since 
the separation from the mother country, has never been able to count the receipt of fifty 
millions of francs, or ten millions of piastres Now, to demand of a nation the sum of two 
hundred millions — that is to say, four years of its revenue— appeared an exorbitant and very 
embarrassing affair. 

They were in this state of embarrassment when M. de Saligny, our minister, declared 
that this was not all ; that there was another claim, and he produced the famous Jecker 
debt. 

I shall not enter into the details of this debt ; we would need the subtlest lawyer to dis- 
entangle the truth in the papers, for and against, that have been wiitten on this subject. I 



294 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

shall confine myself to saying that it was remarkably decried in Mexico, and that, when it 
was necessary, for a debt universally recognized as usurious, to add seventy-five millions to 
the two hundred millions which were demanded, in truth, everybody recoiled. [Murmurs 
in the assembly.] 

I confine myself to saying that the thing was decried ; if it had a good reputation, the 
commissioners of the government have only to say so. 

His excellency M. Bouher, minister of state. Nobody interrupts you. 

M. Thiers. In the state of embarrassment in which they were, they decided to refer the 
question to the three European governments. This was accordingly done, and they con- 
fined themselves to sending to the city of Mexico an ultimatum which could not be either 
precise or peremptory, because they could not actually say what they demanded. But yet 
it was laid down as a principle that they had not come to conquer, nor to revolutionize, 
but to obtain justice. Three officers of the three governments were sent to the capital ; 
they were received with remarkable cordiality ; the greatest regard was manifested for them, 
and they were told that if, in fact, the European governments had come to obtain justice, 
Mexico was ready to render it to them ; and, in fact, they repealed that famous law of July 
17, on account of which we had broken off relations, and which had enacted that the exe- 
cution of the foreign agreements should be deferred for two years. 

The three officers were, therefore, sent back to their commanders, who had sent them, 
with the announcement that General Doblado, who is one of the most prominent men in 
Mexico, and who, we are assured, would be a distinguished man in any country, would repair 
to the Mexican headquarters, in order to treat with the French, English, and Spanish pleni- 
potentiaries. Such was the answer sent from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz. 

General Prim, who saw the number of the sick increase every day, said to Admiral .Turien 
d'e la Graviere, and to all the representatives of the allied powers : " But we will receive 
no answer from Europe for two months, and we cannot remain at Vera Cruz without see- 
ing our armies totally swept away ; (it was then verging towards the month of February.) 
We must obtain other places for encampment." Every one was of this opinion. They 
could not certainly have brought into the field, at that moment, more than 6,000 men. 
Mexico had 15,000. This difference of number was nothing very alarming ior European 
troops ; but the Mexicans, whose military qualities we have had occasion to see are not at 
all contemptible, were posted in very strong positions ; and, moreover, in the confidence 
in which people were that at the first apparition of the European troops all Mexico would 
rise, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere had received no military supplies. 

No means was at hand to transport a cannon, an ambulance, or a commissary wagon. It 
was impossible, therefore, to carry on any military operations at the moment, and to take by 
force the positions held by the Mexicans. They negotiated, therefore, with the Mexican 
general, Doblado. General Prim was intrusted with the management of the affair ; he de- 
clared that, if what he wished was not done, he would break through the Mexican army, 
and General Doblado ended by conceding the following conditions : It was stipulated that 
our three small corps should be received at Orizaba — that is, at an elevated position where 
there was no danger of the usual diseases of the coast ; that provisions and locations wherein 
to establish hospitals should be given to them ; but that, on the other hand, if there was a 
failure to agree in the negotiations to be opened, the positions given us in good faith should 
be restored. This condition could not have been resisted ; it was accepted. 

General Doblado made another condition. Since you do not come to conquer, said he, 
why not allow the Mexican flag to wave beside the Spanish, English, and French flags, now 
waving over Vera Cruz ? That the flags of the three nations should be there is natural enough, 
since their forces are there ; but the Mexican flag should be found there also. 

General Prim, who, notwithstanding, was not a man of very pacific temper, also accepted 
this proposition. Then 3 was a third demand made by General Doblado which was peremp- 
torily rejected. That general desired to have the custom-house, which was in the hands of 
the allies, restored to Mexico. A very decided refusal was given to this proposition. 

This is the celebrated treaty of La Soledad, which has been considered as dishonorable. 
Is that so, gentlemen ? [Interruption.] I would like to know what my opponents would 
have done, in a similar case, when there were no military supplies at hand, when they 
had not yet taken possession of Orizaba, and when they had come to negotiate. There was 
nothing very dishonorable, indeed, in making such stipulations — that is to say, in asking 
and receiving healthy locations for encampment on condition of surrendering them again if 
there was a failure to agree ; it seems to me, I repeat, that there was nothing dishonorable 
in that : anyhow, it was that treaty that saved our three little corps d'armee, for they would 
have surely perished by the pestilence if left at Vera Cruz. 

M. Granier de Cassagnac. They would not have remained there. 

M. Thiers. They would not have remained there ! and where would they have gone? 

His excellency M. Rouher They would have gone to the city of Mexico. 
M. Juiunal. They had only oxen to drag the cannon. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 295 

M. the President. I request the different members not to interrupt the speaker. 

M. Thiers. I defend here the honor of a brave French officer, whom apparently the Em- 
peror honors with his esteem, since he has attached him to his person. He was one of the 
signers of that treaty. For me, I am glad to do him illustrious honor here ; I am convinced 
that he did not compromise the honor of France in saving our soldiers. 

If there were guilty parties here, clo you know where they would be? They would be 
among those who thought it sufficient to send a few thousand men to Vera Cruz to have all 
Mexico uprising. [Approbation on some benches ] 

When through error our soldiers have been endangered, and a brave officer saves them 
without compromising the dignity of our flag, I think we ought to be just towards him, and 
not treat men so lightly who have been placed in embarrassing circumstances. 

A voice. Nobody is attacking him. 

M. Thiers. When they obtained those locations for encampment, the Mexicans said : 
" Well, you have received the locations which you desired ; now we must negotiate " 

But answers were expected from Europe, and they were told that no negotiations could 
be had before the answers arrived. The answers could not arrive before the 15th of April. 
They agreed to adjourn to the 15th of April. 

The despatches of the allied agents, addressed to the three governments in Europe, had 
found those governments more wedded than ever to their own ideas. Thus the English 
showed themselves more obstinately bent than ever to occupy only the ports of Vera Cruz 
and Tampico. Spain, who no longer saw any chances for herself, had given her entire ad- 
hesion to the English plan. As for us, we were more persuaded than ever that the Mexican 
exiles were right. 

The Mexican exiles of the monarchical party had resorted to Austria. They had seen 
Prince Maximilian. That prince had given them a kind of consent. Then they returned 
to Paris, and embarked for Vera Cruz. 

The French government had added 4,500 men to the expedition, and had given them for 
their commander a very brave and very distinguished man, General Lorencez. 

At the head of the exiles of whom I have spoken, who left Europe to return to Vera 
Cruz, was General Almonte The part which he has played, and which he now plays, 
explains what his dispositions must have beeD and the mission which he received. When 
he arrived at Vera Cruz, he published the fact that he had received a commission to 
re establish the monarchical system in favor of an Austrian prince. The English plenipo- 
tentiary, Mr. Wyke, who was always exact in following his instructions, asked him in 
what government's name he spoke, and be added that it was not certainly in the name of 
the English government, for he had received instructions quite to the contrary. General 
Prim addressed him the same question, and said to him : "Assuredly, you do not come in 
the name of the Spanish government, for I have instructions here quite different from what 
you announce." General Almonte declared that he had the confidence of the French 
government, and that he came to re-establish monarchy in Mexico in favor of an Austrian 
prince. 

This immediately gave rise to a very serious question. We had come to Mexico to 
negotiate, and we had, in fact, accepted the position of people who negotiated ; we had 
obtained better quarters on this plea ; and it was evident that our position was becoming 
a false one when, after having proclaimed ourselves as ready to negotiate, we received into 
our ranks an exile, a very respectable man assuredly, but one who proclaimed his inten- 
tion of effecting a revolution. 

M. Glais Bizoin. As respectable as General Moreau. [Interruptions.] 

The President. I request the members not to interrupt, and I pray the speaker not to 
reply to those who do interrupt, because that encourages them, and then discussion is no 
longer possible. 

M. Thiers. I thank the president, and shall follow his advice as well as I can ; but I 
would be glad if those interrupting would follow it also. [Approbative laughter.] 

Well, the English and Spanish negotiators said to Admiral Jurien de la Graviere : " Our 
position is becoming entirely false." Admiral Jurien de la Graviere replied: "That is 
true ; but I am a man of honor, and I am going to evacuate the positions that have been 
given to us." 

This was the declaration of an honorable man, of a man who worthily represented 
France. [Several voices : Good !] But the English and Spanish plenipotentiaries immedi- 
ately said to him : " But that is a declaration of war !" Admiral Jurien made no reply, 
and invariably said : " I am going to retire." 

It became too evident that the representatives of France had received special orders, and 
that those orders were favorable to General Almonte — that is, to the ideas which he repre- 
sented. They asked for a conference at Orizaba. It took place there on the 9th of April, 
and I regret, gentlemen, that the French government, in its publications in its yellow 
book, has not published the proceedings of the conference of Orizaba. These proceedings, 



296 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

it is said, were drawn up by the French legation. Perhaps it is because it is written in 
French that this conjecture has been made ; but it matters little ; it is signed by the French 
legation and by the three negotiators. 

It is therefore perfectly authentic. I shall not read it ; but if it had been printed, I 
would have been dispensed from making this long recital to you, and you would have been 
dispensed from hearing it ; for that perfectly authentic conference, supported by the signa- 
tures of all the plenipotent aries, offers the most complete and striking view of the state of 
affairs. 

Here is the discussion that ensued ; I proceed to resume it in a few words. The English 
and Spanish plenipotentiaries say : " We have all assumed the attitude of people coming to 
negotiate ; how can we take that of people having in their camp a leader of insurrection V 
The French negotiators, Messrs. Jurien de la Graviere and De Saligny, declared that it was 
true. M. de Saligny did not pretend to conceal the fact that, as for him, he had never wished 
to negotiate with Juarez, and that he had always been of opinion that a monarchy, Aus- 
trian or other, should be substituted for that of Juarez. M. Jurien de la Graviere made 
no such declaration, but he said that he had orders, that General Almonte had the confi- 
dence of his government, and that they could not compel him to leave the ranks of the 
French army. I must say that no one demanded of us, and that no one would have in- 
sulted us so far as to demand, that General Almonte should be delivered over to the Mexi- 
can army. No, no ; it was demanded only that he should be treated as General Miramon 
had been — that is, excluded, if not from Vera Cruz, at least from the French camp. Our 
representatives declared that they were commissioned to interpret the treaty of the 31st of 
October and the treaty of La Soledad as they did ; that what they owed to honor was to retire, 
to render up the positions temporarily allowed them ; but that they could do no more. As to 
the impossibility of treating with Juarez, they replied to them : " You say that there is no 
security in treating with the government of President Juarez ; but why not make the trial of 
treating with him, since we are now at the 9th of April, and we have appointed to meet, 
on the 15th, the representatives of that government, of whom the principal is a very dis- 
tinguished man, General Doblado? Let us wait till the 15th ; we will then see whether 
we can come to an understanding with them or not." Our representatives declared that 
they could not do so ; and, in fact, Admiral Jurien de la Graviere abandoned the positions 
which had been lent to him. 

From this time forward the English declared that they were going to re-embark in their 
vessels ; the Spaniards declared that, in conformity with their instructions, they withdrew 
likewise ; and we remained alone in the country. We remained there with the evident 
resolution — in the presence of what is passing now, it is no longer possible to throw a doubt 
upon it — we remained there with the resolution of founding a monarchy in Mexico in favor 
of an Austrian prince. 

You know what has occurred since. Thanks to the very slight information given to us 
by the representatives of the conservative party in Mexico, we attacked Puebla. General 
Lorencez attacked it bravely, and he was wonderfully seconded by his soldiers, who con- 
ducted themselves heroically. (I beg the Honorable M. Beauverger's permission to use this 
expression, which he likes not from our lips, but which we willingly use ) 

M. de Beatjverger. I accept the expression with the greatest pleasure. 

M. Thiers. They conducted themselves heroically. But if they did not succeed, it was 
not their fault, nor the fault of the general who commanded them. The blame was laid 
upon those who had informed us so badly, and on the next day there was but a general 
outcry of indignation through the army against those who had so inopportunely drawn us 
before Puebla. 

We retired to Orizaba, and a whole year was required to repair what happened at Puebla. 
The brave Marshal Forey has repaired that check ; we have been victorious ; we ought to 
be ; no one doubted it ; we entered the city of Mexico. 

This, gentlemen, is an exact recital of events. I refer to the documents at hand that I 
have neither altered nor distorted a single fact, and that this recital is the truth itself. 

I resume the account of facts, and I specify them with the utmost precision. 

It was on account of the delay in carrying into effect the agreement signed with the gov- 
ernment of Juarez— an agreement which had accepted, as they used to say in the middle 
ages, the price of blood, and converted our claims into an indemnity in money — it was on 
account of the delay in the execution of that agreement that we broke off relations. But 
in adopting the English plan it was no fault to break oil' relations, for by taking possession 
of Tampico and Vera Cruz, tiny could have occupied those two sources of the Mexican rev- 
enue until perfect payment should be effected. For this plan, so simple, which was the 
English and Spanish plan, we have substituted the plan of founding a monarchy in Mexico. 
This is the truth and cannot be contested ; it is as clear as noonday. [Assent on several 
benches ] 

Now, gentlemen, I ask your pardon for having detained you so long ; [uo, no; speak 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 297 

on ;] but it is not possible to clear up affairs so complicated without entering into details, 
and I think I have given you only indispensable details. Now I come to the practical 
question. 

They tell us, " We are in Mexico ; how shall we get out of it ? " I confess it ; this is the 
practical question : How shall we get out of it ? 

France ought to emerge from all difficulties with honor, and without detriment to her 
interests. But let me tell you one thing : when people have placed themselves in a false 
position — and it is a somewhat false position, to be at a distance of 3,000 leagues from our 
own shores, with 40,000 French and a part of our navy — when people have placed them- 
selves in a position which can be called false, if they can extricate themselves from it with 
honor unimpaired and interests safe, must we be intractable if our self-love suffers some- 
what? for to pretend to extricate from a false position both honor and interest and self-love 
in safety is too much ; Providence is not so indulgent as that towards those who have com- 
mitted [Various manifestations.] 

What are the means of extricating ourselves with honor and interests safe? My God ! 
The means are very simple. If it were necessary to treat as vanquished — oh, never ! but 
to treat as conquerors is by no means dishonorable. The next day after the entrance into 
the city of Mexico, when we were conquerors, who hindered us from treating with the gov- 
ernment of Juarez, which we had vanquished ? What was there more simple, then, than 
to treat with that government ? 

I will be asked, " How? Treat with President Juarez ! " But when we are conquerors, 
when those whom we have conquered are at the same time the strongest party in the 
country, (I am going to give you the proofs of this,) and when, moreover, that party, after 
all, demands nothing very unreasonable, why refuse to treat with it? 

The proofs that it is the strongest party are these : Here is General Bazaine, who to 
great military talents joins much tact, as we are assured — I have not the honor of knowing 
him — and much political ability — what is he doiag ? He is occupied, you see, at this mo- 
ment, in making a species of revolution, and inclining from the party of the old regime, as 
I have named it, towards the party of the new regime. 

He has, in fact, consented to separate from the archbishop of Mexico on the great question 
of the national property ; for the question which was agitated was this : Should the entire 
proceedings commenced about the national property be suspended or not ? If they were 
suspended, that would signify that there was a desire to reconsider the sale of the national 
property ; if they were not suspended, it would signify that the sale was confirmed. Well, 
no ; those proceedings were not suspended. We acknowledged, therefore, ourselves, through 
the ablest, the wisest of our representatives, General Bazaine, that the liberal party, which 
others call revolutionary — we have agreed to take no account of these appellations — that 
this party is the strongest, and that, moreover, it is not unreasonable, since we are doing 
exactly what it wishes. Was it not, then, I ask, the simplest thing in the world to treat 
with that party — that is to say, with its chief, President Juarez ? 

And, after having treated with him, gentlemen, the question was settled, because at the 
very instant we could have withdrawn, it being well understood that we would retain Tam- 
pico and Vera Cruz, as the English and Spaniards wished to do, in order to hold them as 
pledges, and to insure the execution of the treaty made with us. Then the thirteen or four- 
teen millions a month would not have been inscribed in your budget ; you would not have 
40,000 men beyond the seas ; and this great question which occupies you, which troubles 
you, this great question of the detainment of our troops in Mexico would have been re- 
solved. 

I will be told, " But it would have been very disagreeable, after having announced to 
the world that we were going to establish a monarchy in Mexico, that we would be able 
to treat with a prince, to renounce that monarchy and that prince, and to treat simply 
with Juarez." 

Gentlemen, that is what I call a sacrifice of self-love. But I assert that, when we treat 
with a vanquished enemy, under the conditions of which you are aware, when honor is 
safe, we can rise above all these petty considerations of self-love. The essential point is 
that honor should be unblemished. 

But, gentlemen, in order to judge of the propriety of a course of action to be adopted, we 
must not only examine it in itself ; we must judge it from another point of view — we must 
judge it by comparison with the contrary course. Now, do not judge this resolution to treat 
with Juarez by itself only ; judge it by comparison with another resolution, that of founding 
a monarchy in Mexico 

I shall endeavor not to detain you too long ; but we must examine this thing as serious 
men. I ask pardon for using this expression ; but I do not take as a serious matter this 
consideration of the Latin races opposed to the Anglo-Saxon races. No, this is not serious. 
Let us speak like statesmen. I ask you, gentlemen, is it a matter of common sense, in 
the present state of the universe, to think of establishing on our own account, at our own 



298 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

expense and on our own responsibility, a monarchy in Mexico ? Truly I said to you at the 
beginning, my reason is confounded when I think of such an undertaking. 

Let us examine, coolly, what is likely to happen. How long will you remain there? We 
are told that the foreign legion will be recruited, that a Mexican corps will be formed, and 
that we can then withdraw. But when will this be accomplished ? 

Some time ago we were told with great seriousness that the French debt would be paid 
from the resources of Mexico ; now we are told with the same seriousness that, when the 
foreign legion and the Mexican troops shall have been recruited, we will be able to with- 
draw. Permit me to answer this assertion and remind you of what has passed. 

We entered the city of Mexico, if I am not mistaken, on the 17th of May. Some time 
afterwards the rainy season began. You know that it lasts four months. We were obliged 
to remain quiet during all that time. Then when the rains ceased we had to take the 
field, and in October we commenced to make what has been wittily called an electioneering 
tour in favor of Prince Maximilian. [Laughter and divers manifestations ] 

We commenced operations only in November, and we are probably engaged in them 
now. The Prince, who is announced, will not certainly reach Mexico before the month of 
April, for they say that he will not set out before March. He will therefore arrive in 
April, and he will scarcely have time before the rainy season to receive the felicitations of 
his subjects ; for I have no doubt he will be well received. Do you remember that a new 
prince has ever been otherwise received anywhere ? I, for my part, remember nothing of 
the kind. [Laughter] He will have scarcely received the congratulations of his subjects 
before the rainy season will commence. We must remain quiet again ; troops cannot be 
moved except in September or October. You will yet be obliged to protect him for some 
time. So you are certain, in following this plan, to remain in Mexico during the whole of 
the year 1864. And I set aside the expenses ; I will speak of them presently ; but anyhow 
we stay in Mexico with our whole army for the whole year 1864. Certainly this will be 
denied, but it is true notwithstanding ; Ave are there for the whole of 1864, and I shall 
thank Heaven if we can get out of it in 1865. I shall be told : " We will recruit the troops 
destined for the Prince." I should be glad of it ; but, in any case, the matter cannot be 
effected immediately, and you cannot withdraw your troops all at once ; you will be obliged 
to withdraw them by degrees. Believe me, there is no exaggeration in what I say. You 
will stay in Mexico for several years, whatever you do. Now, in the actual state of the 
world, is it a wise resolution to remain in that position with 40,000 men beyond the seas, 
and when the seas might cease to be free ? 

Now let us also take into consideration the question of finance. Undoubtedly we are 
great financiers at the present day ; we are rich enough to treat questions of finance with 
disdain. Well, gentlemen, I have adhered to the narrow ideas of former times, and I 
entreat you to allow me to speak briefly of the question of finances. 

And to commence, how is this question of finances to be resolved ? As we have hereto- 
fore done, we will pay everybody. You pay the French army now ; you will have to pay 
the Mexican army, and I do not intend to reproach the government for so doing ; it could 
not be otherwise ; it would be absurd if it were. 

In what condition will the Prince find himself on his arrival there ? He will not have a 
dollar in his treasury. The largest part of the revenue of Mexico passes through the 
custom-houses. These custom-houses, gentlemen, are under sequestration now, anil while 
we act as garnishees for our allies, the English and Spanish will receive the greatest pait 
of these revenues. This must be the case ; I blame no person for it ; I blame only the 
state of affairs ; men I blame for their obstinate persistence in such a course. So, at this 
moment, the Mexican government has the greatest part of its revenue sequestrated by the 
occupation of its two custom-houses of Tampico and Vera Cruz. Moreover, also, in 
extending ourselves to San Luis Potosi, we were told yesterday, with a most cavalier-like 
disregard of geography, that we occupy two-thirds or three-fourths of the country. 

M. Jules Favije. The.y said seveu-eighths. 

M. Thiers. Ah ! that is still better. The truth is that we do not occupy the twentieth 
part of it, not the twentieth part. It is true that we occupy some very populous provinces ; 
but assuredly out of eight millions of people we have no more than two millions under 
our authority. I do not say that the Prince may not work wonders hereafter ; that he may 
not succeed in occupying all Mexico ; 1 should be glad if he did. I speak of the present ; 
of the engagement which we make in remaining in Mexico. What revenues will he have ? 
None. Then we are truly, I shall say, too honest to draw him from his family and his 
country [laughter] to leave him in Mexico under the impossibility of paying his own army. 
It will be necessary to pay everything in the beginning, and that will amount to much 
more than twelve millions a month. 

But now I am reminded of the loans. Gentlemen, we must do ourselves justice ; if 
loans are easily made for France, as we can convince ourselves every day — a circumstance 
which we regard with satisfaction not on account of the loans themselves, but on account 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 299 

of the public opulence which permits them to be made, which is very different [various 
noises] — do you think that Mexico can borrow as easily as we do? If you wished to give 
your guarantee it would he very soon effected ; you could borrow for Mexico whatever you 
wished. But I imagine we are not going to be asked to pass a guarantee for a loan. We, 
the members of the opposition, are few in number in this assembly, but on the day that 
such a demand should be made I should not be astonished to find ourselves much more 
numerous. You will not therefore ask us to guarantee any loan. When Mexico shall ask 
for three or four hundred millions that will be necessary for her, do you think that she 
will get them ? I shall enter into no details ; but Mexico, you know, has very heavy debts. 
It has its internal debt ; it does not pay it. It has its debt due to us ; we do not ask it to 
pay it ; we will allow time for that. But it has its external debt, and that we cannot treat 
lightly, for the debtor is a hard one, England. And you know that this external debt is 
about 300 millions There are besides, claimants from other nations, on whose account 
the war has been undertaken, and who claim 200 millions among them all. And appar- 
ently we have not gone to Mexico to have the unfortunate persons, whose rights we under- 
took to defend, lose their indemnity. 

Well, we must collect three or four hundred millions to commence with. It is said that 
the Prince can obtain that sum. I have never had the honor of being near enough to 
him to appreciate his qualifications ; I doubt not that they are very great ; everybody 
says that he is a very estimable and engaging prince. It will not be too much to have all 
his talents to succeed ; it would he necessary for him to have as much as his father-in-law, 
and that is saying much, to enable him to succeed, in a few years, in restoring order in 
Mexico, or in persuading the capitalists of Europe to lend him three or four hundred 
millions. 

It might be perhaps, as I said, a very disagreeable course to treat with that Indian, 
Juarez ; but, if you adopt the contrary course, there you are reduced to remain in Mexico 
for one year, two years, I do not know how long, and you are condemned during that time 
to pay everything. You see that I do not darken the picture ; for if that happens in 
Mexico which has happened in Dominica, where, after the most brilliant reception extended 
to the Spanish authority, they have passed in a year or two to a fierce war ; if that 
happens which has happened at Santo Domingo, the embarrassment would be great. But I 
lay aside these sinister auguries ; I suppose that the Prince will succeed ; so be it. Yet we 
are engaged by our policy to remain for one year, two years, three years, I know not how 
long, beyond the seas, and in the mean time we are obliged so pay everything I confess, 
gentlemen, although our young colleague has highly admired this husiness, that I cannot 
prevail upon myself to admire it. [Interruption aud various movements ] 

M. le Baron de Beauvehger. The young colleague asks to be heard. 

M. Thiers. Now, have these creations of new states succeeded so well with us that we 
should be tempted often to renew the experiment ? Can it be, perchance, that what is 
passing on the banks of the Danube, or in Greece, is very encouraging for the founders of 
new monarchies ? Certainly, if there ever was a justifiable establishment, it was that of 
Greece. This carries me back, and carries all of us back who have reached my age, to the 
recollections of our youth. You know with what enthusiasm I shall say all mankind 
demanded the establishment of the kingdom of Greece ; it was necessary to rescue those 
unfortunate Greeks from the sabre of the Turks. You remember the frightful massacres 
which we witnessed at that period. 

There was a reason, not more respectable than this one, but I shall say more influential 
with statesmen ; it was that if they had not thought to pacify Greece, the eastern ques- 
tion, that formidable question which, some day, if it ever comes up again, will cause so 
much blood to flow, the eastern question would have arisen immediately ; and they acted 
wisely when they created the kingdom of Greece, both on principles of humanity and on 
principles of public policy. And then it was not really very troublesome. Which were the 
powers that concurred? Russia, England, France, the three powers that enveloped 
Greece with their navy, and covered her in some manner by their armies. That could not 
have been very troublesome ; and at that period, when people were not yet accustomed to 
grand financial schemes, the mouey required was not very considerable ; it was twenty 
millions for each of the three powers that co-operated in that affair. There was no danger, 
therefore, not much expense, and an absolute necessity. More reasons could not be com- 
bined. No regret, therefore, could be entertained for the erection of the kingdom of 
Greece. 

And yet, has all this so well succeeded ? After a reign of some years the Greeks have 
sent King Otho back to you. He had done no harm ; he was not possessed of much ability ; 
he interpreted the constitutional system in a certain way which did not prove successful for 
him, and at last he has been sent hack to Europe, which had given him to Greece. 

Aud immediately the Greeks were told: "Well, gentlemen, as you please; your king 
does not suit you ; well, we will give you another." [General merriment.] Another was 



300 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. * 

sought out and found. Here, gentlemen, I must say that I admire the wisdom which our 
government has manifested on this occasion. It left to England the task of finding a 
king, and that was not easy. England addressed herself to that Danish line, now so 
rudely shaken ; she detached a scion from it, and of it made a king of Greece. England 
added to this a sacrifice which will appear to her, when she reflects upon it, more serious 
at hottom than it did at the first moment ; she ceded the Ionian islands, and, what is more 
important than the Ionian islands, the fortress of Corfu. 

Well, England, who sought out this king and conducted him by the hand, who made 
such sacrifices as these for Greece, is much more unpopular there now than we are, who 
did not interfere at all. [Approbative laughter.] Well, gentlemen, is it a very tempting 
business to proceed to erect states outside of one's own country? You are attempting a 
Greece at the distance of three thousand leagues from France. And with what support ? 
When we established Greece we had the support of England and Russia, and the good 
wishes of all the world ; I can assert that it was the general desire. Well, here we are 
establishing a monarchy in Mexico ; with whose good wishes ? It would be very embar- 
rassing to answer. Ah ! I will tell you : yes, you will have the somewhat sarcastic good 
wishes of England — the English papers will give you the proof of it — you will have the sar- 
castic good wishes of England, on one condition, and that is that the custom-houses of 
Tampico and Vera Cruz shall serve principally to pay her, and that you will come in last 
when the accounts have to be settled. [Various manifestations.] On this condition, I am 
convinced, she will be well disposed ; she will tell you, from time to time, that she is 
delighted to find you yet in Mexico, as she often repeats in her newspapers. But, with 
the exception of this raillery, discourteous enough, perhaps, she will not at all inconve- 
nience you in what you may do in Mexico. 

But, after England, there is the Anglo Saxon race, of which so much is said, and of which 
we must take proper account. Well, the United States now respect and flatter you, for it 
would depend on you to decide the question if France pronounced for either one of the 
two parties, and she will do well not to do so. For my part, I entreat her not to do so, 
and I strongly approve the course of the government in maintaining neutrality. [Several 
voices: Good !] If France declared for one of the parties the question would be decided, 
for all depends on her. Well, it is not very astonishing that the United States now respect 
you. It seems to me certain even that if you caused Prince Maximilian to pass by way of 
New York, the interests of the north would insure him a good reception. I grant it. But 
can any man seriously believe that when this civil war shall have been terminated — the 
termination of which we should desire, should ask of Heaven, not only in the interest of 
humanity, but in the interest and in the name of all Europe — can any one believe, I say, 
that the United States, who have proved to us on other occasions that their memories are 
short, will remember the careful impartiality which you have maintained ? Aud do you 
believe that if you effect anything serious in Mexico they will aid you in completing it? I 
doubt it. 

In the first place, without any interference on their part, that will happen which hap- 
pened in regard to the Havana. They declared, in regard to the Havana, that they would 
not interfere in the matter ; I am aware even that they did not interfere much, and yet all 
the adventurers of the southern States of America threw themselves on the Havana. 

Well, you will certainly have some fifty thousand or one hundred thousaud adventurers 
out of employment at the end of this deplorable war. Where do you wish them to go ? 
They will only have to cross the Rio del Norte to enter Mexico. And for whom will they 
go? For us? Is that possible ? No, no one can believe that. You see, therefore, that 
you have a Greece at the distance of three thousand leagues, with the coldness of England, 
with the inevitable hostility, sooner or later, if not of the northern fetates of America, at 
least of all the men in their service, who will find their occupation gone when the war is 
finished. [Cries of good ! good ! from several benches.] 

Well, I confess it is in vain that I regard the question under all its phases ; I cannot yet 
find a serious motive for such an enterprise. Ah ! it is true that we are told, " Mexico is 
such a fine country ; it is the finest country in the world ! Read the descriptions given of it. 
You will find there immense resources, which will indemnify you for all your sacrifices." 

Gentlemen, for a long time I have examined that question; I have had the honor of 
being several times minister of foreign affairs, and it was my duty to consider the question. 
I have considered it seriously since, and I am astonished at what is circulated in this 
respect. 

Mexico is very rich ! Well, the celebrated Humboldt, when he visited it, destroyed 
many illusions in reference to it. Mexico had, at the end of the last century, a colossal 
reputation tor wealth, and this is easily explained. Spain produced for herself alone, by 
her colonies, nine-tenths of all the precious metals scattered throughout the world. Now, 
all these metals were thought to come from Mexico alone. For this reason Mexico, under 
the name of New Spain, had a colossal reputation. When Humboldt visited it many illu- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 301 

sions were destroyed in his mind. And since then other travellers, who had not the 
sagacity and reputation of Humboldt, have found many more illusions to destroy. I do 
not i?ay that Mexico is not a fine country ; but look out at America ; from the great lakes 
to Cape Horn there is not a country of which the same could not be said that has been 
said of Mexico. We have but to take actual facts. Consult the statistics, then, and you 
will see whether that wonder is as wonderful as they say. 

Mention has been made of the cotton of Mexico ; and certainly that which is of more 
importance to a country than rich mines is a large amount of agricultural productions ; 
that is better than gold and silver. 

Cotton, if Mexico could furnish it, would be a very precious product. "We have been 
told, it has been widely circulated, that Mexico could furnish us with cotton. Well, here 
are the rigorous facts in this regard. I have conversed with merchants who applied them- 
selves to the cultivation of cotton ; I have consulted the directors of the agricultural school 
of Mexico, and here is what they have told me : 

Cotton can grow only in the low lands along the Gulf of Mexico, which resemble those 
of Texas, but which, unfortunately, are most of the time subject to the malaria. Cotton 
grows there, it is true, but they have not the labor of Texas — that is, black labor ; they 
have nothing but Indian labor, and the Indians are unwilling to descend to the low lands. 
They have been so badly treated there by the Spanish planters that they have retired into 
the mountains, where they live on little, and it is only in cases of extreme necessity that 
they enter into any relations with the white race. They descend only as rarely as possible 
into the lower regions. 

Cotton, therefore, cannot be cultivated in the low lands for want of labor ; and out of 
five crops, two or three are always lost, because the rains of the month of March attack 
the cotton at the moment when the cotton balls are opening. So the cultivation of cotton 
has been almost abandoned in Mexico ; it is yet cultivated to a small extent, but this cul- 
tivation scarcely suffices for the very few cotton factories in operation in Mexico. 

On the table lands it cannot grow. On the table lands there are four months of inunda- 
tion and eight mouths of drought, and for this reason all cultivation is difficult. Cultiva- 
tion is possible only in the valleys, and there it is magnificent, it is true. There, where 
they can collect the water and preserve it, where they can employ the means of irrigation, 
either natural or artificial, every class of cultivation is magnificent ; that is incontestable. 

Yet, there the same difficulty exists, the want of labor. At a period when Mexico is 
said to have been in a remarkable state of prosperity, at the end of the last century, or 
about 1803, when M. Humboldt wrote his work, do you know what the soil of Mexico 
then produced ? — and certainly it is not more cultivated at the present day. It produced a 
hundred and forty-five millions a year. Now, compare this with the agricultural produc- 
tion of France, and see how much it represents. There has been great discrepancy in 
regard to the amount of the agricultural production of France ; it has been variously esti- 
mated at about six, seven, or eight thousand millions. Well, according to Humboldt the 
productions of the soil of Mexico were 145,000,000 at the commencement of this century. 

But they say that there are mines The mines can yield from 120.000,000 to 130,000,000. 
These mines, of which they talk so much, assuredly are rich, but their wealth is not the 
essential thing. You must know that gold and silver diggings are found everywhere — in 
California, for example. California presents no great amgunt of gold wealth in the portions 
of the country in the neighborhood of San Francisco, and the Californians have crossed 
the Sierra Nevada, and have found magnificent silver diggings beyond the Sierra Nevada, 
between that range and the Eocky mountains ; and they have found, moreover, mercury, 
which is indispensable. Other miners have ascended the Fraser river, opposite Vancouver's 
island : diggings have been discovered there of the greatest richness. The Americans have 
also proceeded towards the Colorado, and they have there also found diggings extremely 
abundant in the precious metals. 

When you are told that a country is the richest of countries, because it possesses mines 
of gold and silver, the assertion is not serious. The essential requisite for the prosperous 
working of mines is to have large capital, good managers, much continuity of effort. This 
is found with difficulty. 

Well, in Mexico, for want of these requisites, do you know what has happened ? The 
greater part of the capital invested in the mines of Mexico has been lost. The English 
have lost more than fifty millions of piastres, or two hundred and fifty millions of francs. 
The Germans have lost fifteen millions of piastres, or seventy-five millions of francs. Con- 
sequently we must not imagine that the mines of Mexico are anything wonderful. 

Yes, there are silver diggings of considerable importance — that is undoubted ; but there 
is no mercury at hand ; it has to be bought in Europe or in California. That would con- 
tribute very much to increase the expenses of working. All the speculators of Europe that 
are ready to follow Prince Maximilian to Mexico have written, "I have seen letters trans- 
mitted through the most respectable houses." Do you know what replies have been re- 



302 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

turned ? Not to be too confident, for that there was nothing more hazardous than working 
the silver mines of Mexico. They have been told, even, that it would be better to direct 
their attention to the copper mines. 

This explains to you why Mexico, with about one hundred and fifty millions of agricul- 
tural production, one hundred and twenty, one hundred and thirty, or one hundred and 
forty millions of mineral production, making about three hundred millions in all, has only 
a commerce of one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty millions, importation and 
exportation combined, in which we enter to the amount of twenty millions. 

Well, gentlemen, as dreaming is the order of the day, I am going to have my dream too. 
I grant you the most that you can possibly imagine. I grant you that Mexico is going to 
succeed like Brazil. Yes, Prince Maximilian, who is a man of talent, will be, moreover, a 
prince of pre-eminent ability and skill ; the Mexicans will all at once rally round the new 
monarchy ; they will not act as the mulattoes are acting in Dominica — the Prince will per- 
form the miracle of bringing the old and the new regime to perfect accord ; he will reign ; 
everything will turn out for the best ; everything will turn out as in Brazil. 

Well, how do matters go in Brazil ? Do you know how long it has taken Brazil to reach 
the point to which it has arrived? Only fifty years It has required princes of great 
wisdom, uninterrupted repose, happy relations with the whole world, and fifty years, I re- 
peat, to attain a revenue of one hundred millions, and a commerce amounting to five or 
six hundred millions. Whilst we, gentlemen, see our commerce doubled in ten years — it 
was so said from the tribune the other day, and with justice — whilst we see it in that space 
of time pass from two to four and even five thousand millions, Brazil, in twenty years, has 
risen from about four hundred millions to six hundred millions ; it has increased one-third. 
And how, gentlemen ? By peace, by time, by labor. 

God has given to man but one magic ring — that is, labor and patience. [Good, good.] 
Brazil has employed this means, which is more efficacious than the precious metals. I am 
going to give you a proof of it. 

Brazil has precious metals, also ; it has scarcely occupied itself with them. It has de- 
voted itself to agriculture, and it possesses one admirable branch of agriculture, coffee. Do 
you know how much coffee it gives to the world every year ? At the present hour, more 
than two hundred millions ! That is better than the precious metals. With the aid of re- 
pose, calm and quiet liberty, excellent princes, not a single enemy, and a period of fifty 
years, Brazil has arrived at this state. 

I ask you, suppose Brazil had a friend in Europe who had deeply obliged it, most sensibly 
obliged it, could it possibly make the fortune of that friend, or repay him for the efforts 
made in its favor ? [Divers manifestations ] It is, then, a mere dream to pretend that 
Mexico, by succeeding like Brazil, could indemnify us, and pay the five or six hundred 
millions which we shall have spent for her. 

I am well aware that people say, "Oh, yes ! but you forget one thing ; you forget that 
a miracle might be performed." A miracle ! What miracle ? The miracle of California. 

Ah ! that is true. They have talked to you of a province called Sonora, and which, it 
is said, must be like California. It is said, "If we had something there like California it 
would not be a thing to be despised, and we would have no reason to regret our sacrifices 
and our efforts." 

Gentlemen, I have detained you very long 

Several voices No, no. 

M. Thiers I shall require only a few minutes to illustrate this miracle of California. 
If you will allow me to speak a few words to you, you will see whether this wonder is any- 
thing so prodigious after all, or calculated to make the fortune of a government. 

Well, yes, the diggings of California are very rich ; are those of Sonora equally so ? No- 
body knows. There are some German engineers who have written on the subject, and who 
question it. The truth is, that we know nothing about it ; and this should render every- 
body very cautious. As for me, it does render me very cautious ; and I declare that I know 
nothing about it. But there is one thing that I do know, because I have studied geogra- 
phy, and that is that Sonora is situated about ten or fifteen degrees lower than the country 
where they seek for gold in California — that is, some hundreds of leagues further south, and 
that the climate is one of the most dangerous for Europeans ; moreover, there are ferocious 
savages there — the Apaches — who have hitherto rendered that province almost uniu- 
habitable. 

But I am willing to concede this point ; I shall make everything easy to the partisans 
of the Mexican monarchy. I am willing to grant them that Sonora will be the easiest 
province in the worid to reside in. Well, things will go on as they did in California ; and 
see how they went on in California. 

When it was discovered that there were sands yielding gold, which not only offered facil- 
ities for gaining two hundred or three hundred francs a day, but that also those famous 
veins were found which could yield twenty, thirty, or forty thousand francs a day — oh, it 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 303 

•was just after the termination of the European revolutions — all the outcasts of all classes, as 
they have been styled, rushed to California. They obtained much money at first, it is 
true. In the beginning, many of them killed each other — fatigue and misery killed many 
more ; for, even whilst they possessed gold, gold in abundance, they had misery at their 
sides. They came to San Ifrancisco to enjoy the treasures which they had collected. 

Well, for an article of clothing which here at the Palais Boyal could be procured for five 
francs, they were obliged to pay one hundred francs. It was very simple: the storekeepers 
of San Francisco profited by the condition of things and sold everything, it may be truly 
said, for its weight in gold. As these storekeepers themselves were obliged to pay in Europe 
for all that they had need of in California, and that, too, at very high prices, they did not 
make such extraordinary profits as some people might be induced to believe. So that the 
gold of California was somewhat diffused everywhere, and it is well that such was the case. 
For my part I do not question this ; I seek merely to know whether that gold has been 
accumulated anywhere in such a way as to enrich a friend who might desire therewith to 
enrich another friend. 

The gold of California was, therefore, diffused throughout the world. After a brief time 
what happened ? The sands became less rich. The gold-seekers, who had not been pru- 
dent enough to be economical, were obliged to stop. It was necessary to open shafts ; it 
was necessary to examine the beds of auriferous quartz ; this quartz it was necessary to 
break up ; after breaking it was necessary to employ washing to separate the gold from 
the stony matter. It was necessary for companies to take the matter in hand. Now only 
companies carry on the works in California, and the gold-seekers have become simply la> 
borers. 

■There is no great evil in this, perhaps. But let us see. Has the government of Cali- 
fornia, or has the federal government, made any great fortune ? The facts are these : The 
government of the State of California has seen its revenues increase a little, not much. 
As to the federal government, it was for a short time engaged in a quarrel with the State 
of California ; it asserted and proved that the revenue from the customs, although consid- 
erably increased, was just sufficient to pay the expenses. 

Consequently, the gold of California has been diffused throughout the world, it is true ; 
but it has not been accumulated anywhere to such an extent as to provide a government 
with the means of handsomely recompensing a friendly government that might have ren 
dered it great services. 

There has been a wonder produced, I acknowledge, an admirable one, the only one now 
left, I can tell you. Who has wrought this wonder ? Who has profited by it ? A good 
creature, in truth, which makes no noise, which makes no promises, but which works — agri- 
culture. 

Do you know what has passed within twelve years in California? That province, which was 
entirely uncultivated, is now as wgll cultivated as one of the finest provinces of France. 
And. how has this wonder been wrought? Because among the gold-seekers there was a 
number of men who had the good sense to buy up at very low prices some parts of that 
soil which is so fertile ; they have cultivated these, and now California sends corn to 
Australia. 

Here is the wonder. Yes, there is one province the more now in the United States, mag- 
nificently cultivated. But the federal government is n§t for all that dispensed from the 
necessity of using paper money, as you know ; and as to the State of California, it has gained 
almost nothing by it. 

Well, will the wonder be repeated ? Suppose, I repeat, that Sonora is a California ; I ask 
whether means will be found there to indemnify France for some hundreds of millions which 
she will have expended, and for the dangers which she will have run ? Not at all. We 
must lay aside these dreams ; we must come to positive realities ; and I now resume this, 
perhaps, too long discussion, [no, no ; go on,] which, if it has not exceeded your powers 
of endurance, begins to exceed mine. 

The truth is this : The wisest course would be simply to content ourselves to maintain 
our honor safe, to have the interests of France so likewise, and to desist from the further 
pursuit of a dangerous and chimerical enterprise, in the result of which I can perceive nothing 
to advance any great interest of France. 

Now, I shall be told : " We have addressed ourselves to Prince Maximilian ; the Prince 
is going to set out ; we have entered into engagements towards him." 

That is true, gentlemen ; but it is your part to come to the assistance of the government — 
it is your part. And beware ! we are about to assume a great responsibility ; for, according 
,to the language you may use, the result may be very different. If you express yourselves 
in a certain way, the French government might say to that Prince, and this course would 
be honorable to all parties : "What do you wish? The public authorities in France are 
not favorable to this enterprise, and I will not be able, perhaps, as my honor would lead 
me, to sustain you as long and as energetically as I would wish." 



304 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Well, the Prince, who is, assuredly, a sensible man, when the French government 
would address him thus in accordance with your wishes, would, perhaps, decline to accept, 
and we might return to that President — not a very attractive personage, undoubtedly — to 
that President Juarez, who is at the head [interruptions and numerous cries.] 

Gentlemen, it seems that those who interrupt me find that the responsibility which we 
are about to assume by this language that we will use is not heavy. I congratulate them for 
thinking so. As for me, I do not think it so,and I believe that when you will have encouraged 
the government to persist in its designs, which will depend on your words, it will be entirely 
out of place for you hereafter to refuse to it the troops, the sailors, the millions requisite to 
carry out to the end what you are now going to undertake. For, reflect on it well, hitherto 
your honor is not engaged in the affair ; but the day that the Prince shall have set out with 
your support and your guarantee, you must sustain him whatever happens. [Various 
demonstrations ; applause around the speaker, who takes his seat.] 

Recess for a quarter of an hour. 

Speech of M. Berryer. 

I have but a few words to say. On this great question I have already formed my opinion, 
decided both by the study which I have made of all that has transpired to this day in our 
Mexican expedition, and by the examination which I have made, as far as it is permitted 
to penetrate the future, of the consequences of the enterprise on which we have entered. 

The disposition which I feel at this moment I believe is shared by the immense majority 
of this assembly. I see in the state of the debate only a question on which, in viitue of 
a right which you all assert for yourselves since it is constitutionally established, I would 
have wished to obtain, or that you might obtain, some explanations on the part of the organs 
of the government. 

The question for me, in the present state of the affair, is absolutely foreign to those facts 
already passed and discussed, on which the speaker on the side of the government has in- 
voked the authority of established and decided facts. I shall not, therefore, examine its 
antecedents, and if I refer to them at all, it will be only to deduce from them something 
illustrative of the troubles and difficulties which the future may have in store for us. 

The question of the moment now, that in regard to which no judgment has been reached, 
the question on which I ask, and I presume others as well as myself will ask, some positive 
explanations from the government, is this : Are we soon to discontinue the occupation of 
Mexico? When are we to put into execution the last instructions sent to General Bazaine 
on the 24th of August last? This is the main question. 

From many benches. That is so. 

M. Berryer. That is to say, can the government assure France that it has resolved to 
quit Mexico soon? Or shall we be told, on the contrary, that it desires to pursue the 
establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, conformably to the instructions sent to General 
Bazaine ? This, 1 repeat, is the real question. 

In the antecedent stages of this affair, we were told that the expedition was not under- 
taken for ourselves alone. That is true. As to the past, I shall not discuss in any manner 
the motives which determined us to undertake an expedition to Mexico. We had to 
avenge our honor, which had been wounded and deeply outraged in the person of the 
representatives of France. We had to obtain legitimate reparation for material injuries 
done to our fellow-citizens, and reparation also for the assaults which, through a couiee of 
violence unexampled, had been made on the persons of several among them. To avenge 
our honor, to obtain lawful reparation on these two accounts, is assuredly a very natural 
motive for undertaking an expedition against the government from which these two classes 
of reparation are to be obtained. We had undertaken to reach this difficult result, and, 
it is said, we had not undertaken it alone. 

Here I shall say a word about the past in order to determine precisely the condition in 
which we now are. On the 31st of October, 1861, a treaty was made between three powers 
equally or almost equally offended by Mexico. For a long time Spain had injuries to 
avenge, and injuries, too, of the greatest moment. In 1858, the Queen of Spain, on open- 
ing the Cortes of Madrid, pronounced a warlike speech against Mexico. The very idea of 
such an enterprise by Spain alone awoke all the ardor of Castilian imagination ; recollec- 
tions reaching backwards for three centuries and the long possession which Spain hid had 
of that territory, all gave reasons to think that Spain would be very glad, in view of the 
abominable disorder which reigned in Mexico, of the anarchy which caused the fall one 
after another, in forty or fifty years, I do not know of how many governments, more . 
numerous even than the years themselves — that Spain, I say, would be very glad to find 
an occasion to reconquer Mexico. Her ideas became more animated and her resolutions 
more precise when the great embarrassment of the United States occurred in consequence 
of the civil war which has broken out in that country. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 305 

I do not wish to read any extracts to you at this hour, but a letter, a despatch addressed 
to M. Mon, the Queen's ambassador at Paris, says precisely that this may be the proper 
occasion. Its terms are : " The government should not conceal " — that is the expression 
used in the despatch — " the government should not conceal that this may be a suitable 
occasion for awakening ancient recollections and placing on the throne of Mexico a prince 
of the blood of the Bourbons more or less intimately united to that house." This despatch 
was addressed to M. Mon in 1861. 

This, then, was the position of Spain ; it was known to France I know not what passed 
at Vichy and under what point of view General Prim presented the ideas of his country 
in regard to Mexico ; but what I do know is, that a despatch arrived immediately from 
Madrid, of the date of September 10, 1861, announcing that they desired to know whether 
the French government would be willing to unite with Spain in making an expedition to 
Mexico to demand reparation. M. Thouvenel immediately answered that France was well 
disposed to unite with Spain, but that she would not do so without being of accord with 
England, her ally. And then in that same conversation, as is stated in a despatch of 
October 13, M. Thouvenel indicates that it was a monarchy that was to be established in 
Mexico ; and as to the prince that might be chosen, the three contracting parties engaging 
not to procure the elevation to the throne of Mexico of any prince of their own families, 
assuredly Prince Maximilian was the best candidate to be presented to the choice of the 
Mexicans. This was the position of France. As to England, she was in a quite different 
disposition. England thought that it was necessary to perform some vigorous act against 
Mexico ; that it was necessary to take possession of her ports and of her outlets, to seize 
her custom-house revenues, and to remain satisfied with that method of obtaining a 
reparation which she considered sufficient ; but at the same time and in the most formal 
terms, in her despatches to Mr. Wyke, she declared that she did not intend under any con- 
sideration to interfere in the internal affairs of the Mexican republic. 

It is true, therefore, as the Hon. M. Thiers has said, that when, on the 31st of October, 
the three powers, in these three different dispositions, made a treaty in common, it was a 
veritably negative treaty ; for it was impossible that, when they came to deliberate on the 
direction to be given to the expedition thus agreed upon, each of the plenipotentiaries 
should not strive to make the results of the deliberation incline towards the principle, the 
ruling thought, of his own government. 

Thus our agent was to think of the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico in favor of 
Prince Maximilian ; Spain could not see without pain an Austrian prince coming to occupy 
a position which she would have asked for a prince of her own family ; and England, who 
did not wish to interfere in any manner in the internal affairs of the country, must 
necessarily have objected. I speak not of the protests made against the exaggerated 
nature of the debts due to us ; these are details of the past which I omit. There, gentle- 
men, was the thing which brought on dissension, when we presented ourselves in Mexico 
with General Almonte in our ranks. Moreover, this dissension was in the nature of things ; 
it was in the dispositions of the three governments, in their intentions, which were not 
altogether secret, at the time when the treaty of October 31, 1861, was concluded. The 
plenipotentiaries did all they could to come to an agreement with each other. First, the 
treaty of la Soledad was made, a treaty more or less blamed, more or less approved. They 
proceeded to Orizaba. It was there that it was necessary to pronounce the final words, 
and it was there that they broke off before they had opened communication with the com- 
missioner of the government established at the city of Mexico. 

Here commence our faults; here commences our resolution to undertake the whole 
enterprise alone, a fault into which we have been very naturally led ; and to this point, in 
my retrospective observations, I call the attention of the assembly. We were led by false 
reports, by lying communications, with which we have been saturated by the press and in 
every possible way, to regard as an extremely easy enterprise our taking possession of the 
Mexican republic. There yet, gentlemen, lies our illusion ; we have yet to do with the 
same persons, with those who have deceived us, with those who have brought our govern- 
ment to engage in this affair with forces entirely insufficient, arid who brought us to the 
necessity of retiring from before the strong position of Puebla in 1862. Here is a warning ; 
it is the only one which I would wish to deduce from the past. When faults are past, we 
can gratify ourselves in enumerating them . 

Mention has been made of glory. Yes, the glory of our soldiers covers everything ; it 
covers all faults. But this glory, which never fails us, will ever be the same. In all 
engagements it has been the same in all ages, since the first day of the French monarchy, 
since the first Christian king has sat on the throne of France ; the French soldier has ever 
been the same, and unfortunately many administrations, and guilty administrations, have 
sought to cover their faults with the never-failing eclat of the valor and glory of the French 
soldiers. [Several voices : Good, good ] 

Let us come, then, to events subsequent to their victory ; let us pass over the antecedents. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 20 



306 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

You have to obtain reparation, to avenge your honor. Have you done nothing ? The 
commissioner of the government said awhile ago that it was not a coup de main that could 
suffice for us, and that an enterprise such as that which has caused the flag of France to 
triumph before San Juan de Ulloa could not be a sufficient action in the estimation of the 
three powers. We were alone ; but have you done nothing else? In what condition are 
we now ? This is what I pray you to consider. I finish in a few words ; I have but little 
strength to continue my address. 

But you have not stopped at a coup de main; you have not confined yourselves, in con- 
formity with the English policy, to seizing the ports and custom houses ; you have gone 
further than this : you have stormed Puebla after a heroic struggle ; you have entered the 
city of Mexico. Have you done nothing in that capital ? You have constituted a govern- 
ment there, a provisional government, I acknowledge — but a government, however — and 
you have placed at its head the very man to whom you gave admission into your ranks, 
whilst presenting him as a leader of revolution in opposition to Juarez and his government. 
This government of yours has appointed a junta, a council of notables — I know not what 
name they give it — an assembly of thirty members. They are, you see, in possession of 
power. Who are the men whom you have placed in that position ? Those who told us 
that they were the representatives of the majority of Mexico ; those who told us that we 
had only to show ourselves in their company on the coasts of Mexico to have all arms open 
to receive us, to have ourselves overwhelmed with grateful acknowledgments And you 
have not been contented with a portion of the territory ; you have taken the city of 
Mexico ; you have established a government there ; you have done more — you have made 
several expeditions since your occupation of the capital ; you have extended your forces 
over a space more or less extensive, which is a very slight matter, when I compare the 
points on the map over which our troops have been directed and the immense extent of 
Mexico. But, in fine, you have assured to youi selves a territory around the city of 
Mexico already subjected ; you have given to that government which you created an army 
which you pay, which is at its disposal. It has, it says, the majority of the country, and 
you have no difficulty in establishing an archduke emperor or king of Mexico. You have 
given a capital to that government ; you have conquered its enemies ; you have compelled 
the Mexican nation to undergo the cruellest insult that a nation proud of its unity aud of 
its existence can suffer. You are masters of the capital and of a small part of the surround- 
ing provinces. You have constituted an army a government. You are masters of the 
ports, the sole outlets of that country. Who hinders you from suspending war, hostilities, 
further enterprises? It is not with Juarez that you must treat, but with the government 
which you have made. [Applause on several benches ] Has that government lied ? Is 
it composed of men who have deceived France, of men who do not represent the majority 
of the country ? Is the approbation now given to the French enterprise by the inhabitants 
of Mexico a mere fiction? Are we, then, in presence of a nation now covered with false- 
hood, with a negation, and does not the government which we have established represent 
the majority of the wishes and intentions of the people of that country? 

They said that we had 5,500,000 inhabitants subject to our authority. Well, when your 
honor has been avenged, when victory has returned to you, when you have wiped out all 
the affronts which those barbarians have essayed to impress for a moment on the face of 
Fiance, when you have regained victory, when you are masters of the capital, when you 
have founded a new government which is surrounded with all the powers which it can and 
ought to use, all is terminated, why not stop short? Why not? Is there nothing done? 
Have you done nothing? This is something that you would not like to confess. 

In view of this state of affairs, which appeals to me to be the true one ; when you can 
withdraw with the honors' of war, when you are conquerors of your enemy, when you have 
overthrown Juarez in his capital, when you are masters of that capital, when you have 
established there a government to which yon have given an army — a considerable military 
force organized by you ; in view of this state of affairs, I say, what hinders you from treat- 
in 0- with that government? Is there anything in it that touches the honor, the self-love, 
or the interests of Fiance in any way ? What, then, do you wish to do? Do you wish, on 
the contrary, to persist in the development of the instructions sent to General Basaine f 
But you cannot now think of persisting in your enterprise, unless you recognize the insuf- 
ficiency of the government which you have founded at the city of Mexico, unless you 
recognize that the majority of Mexicans which you boast of having obtained is a pure 
fiction. [Applause on several benches ] 

If you do not treat with tbat government which you have founded yourselves, it must 
be because that government has not the majority of the people of the country on its side, 
became you alone support it, because now the people of that country bow their heads 
merely on account of the presence of your arms, and they would rise up in insurrection on 
the day that your arms would be withdrawn. [Several voices: Good, good.] 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 307 

And it is into such a country as that that you wish to take an Austrian prince to be there 
the representative of the majority of the people, to be the child of your victories ! No, no ; 
you will not do so ; the undertaking would be foolish ; it would be insane. You would 
deliver yourselves up to all sorts of adventures. You cannot honorably call Prince Maxi- 
milian to Mexico if that country is in such a state, if the government which you have 
placed there is not sufficiently powerful to sustain him alone. Or else, if you persist in 
calling him thither in spite of everything, you yourselves must maintain him there. 

Maintain him ! — eh ! gentlemen ; that may be for long years, for in order to sustain 
him nothing less will be required than to hold Mexico in subjection, if the majority is not 
really gained over to the government represented by General Almonte and the members of 
the junta. Think, therefore, before consolidating a kingdom, an empire, at the distance 
of three thousand leagues from us, think of what has happened at our doors ! We received 
an affront from the Dey of Algiers; we avenged that affront ; we reduced his capital, which 
is over against our ports ; and we have required fifteen years of fighting to establish our 
authority over a nation which had within itself no causes of internal distraction, which 
was not broken up into hostile parties, and which we delivered from the yoke of the 
Turks ; we have required fifteen years of struggle to succeed in the pacification of Algiers ! 
What an enterprise, then, would not the pacification of Mexico be, the extinction there of 
the political passions of the parties which divide it, the rallying them around a new mon- 
archy, after that unhappy country had been for fifty years subject to so many commotions 
and revolutions ! How much resistance would you not have to overcome in order to make 
such a people pass from the republican to the monarchical state ! 

How do you propose to have the dissensions, manifested in the conferences of the plenipo- 
tentiaries of the three nations at Orizaba, cease all at once? Do you believe that the causes 
of those dissensions have disappeared, or that others will not arise ? It was already some- 
thing to have brought Spain to unite with you ; but did she not do so because she hoped to 
succeed by your means in reconquering her ancient colonies ? Do you believe that the 
English, who possess a part of the Antilles, who possess Jamaica, and who are so jealous of 
their interests, will ever regard with pleasure a power which may be able some day to 
compromise British interests in those quarters? Do you believe that they will throw no 
difficulties in the way ? 

There are other sources of difficulty which have been spoken of, and spoken of with 
reason : they are those respecting the position of the United States. 

The actual condition of the United States is deplorable. As for me, with all the old 
traditions of my country, I am a devoted partisan of the American Union ; I have seen it 
tear itself to pieces with the profoundest grief; I always hoped that in the daily increasing 
power of that great federal republic we should, by its commerce, by its navy, by the 
development of its population and power, find a powerful ally for France in certain grave 
conjunctures. [Several voices : Good, good.] Nothing afflicts me more than the actual 
division of the United States. I fondly hope to see peace restored with the least possible 
sacrifice to either part of that great people. But however things terminate, do not forget 
that the northern States will always constitute a nation of great power and influence 
throughout the whole American territory ; do not forget that our course in this expedition 
to Mexico is a source of offence to them. 

Numerous voices. No, no. 

M. Berryer. Those who deny my assertions have not sufficiently studied the documents 
before our eyes and all the historic facts that cannot be denied, and which go no further 
back than these last three years. I speak not of that deeply rooted sentiment which is the 
vital principle, the nervous centre, of the political existence of the United States, of that 
sentiment which is called the Monroe doctrine ; that is, the sentiment of impatience and 
hostility with which the United States consider the intervention of any European power in 
the affairs of America. [Divers manifestations.] 

I speak not of that sentiment. But how have you commenced the Mexican expedition? 
By the treaty of October 31. 

And what did you say in that ti eaty ? Yielding to a desire of England, you said that the 
United States were invited to enter into it ; you prayed them to do so ; and yet, in a letter 
dated July 25, 1862, I have read in so many words that it was necessary to form a new 
establishment in Mexico precisely for the purpose of diminishing the influence of the States 
of the north and preventing that power, whose prosperity notwithstanding might be so useful 
to our commerce, from obtaining a troublesome development in South America. Thus the 
Mexican expedition has been partly undertaken against the United States. [Vehement 
denials ] 

I exaggerate naught, gentlemen ; I speak the truth. Read over again the letter of the 
month of July, 1862, and you will see there, in so many words, that it is necessary to 
arrest the further progress of the United States. 

Well, if you succeeded, when the United States— towards which such a. course has been 



308 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

pursued, and which hold that vital principle of which I spoke just now — should see, after 
the termination of their war, a state which you could not sustain except at the price of 
immense sacrifices, (and however immense they should be, unfortunately I should be afraid, 
they would prove useless,) when the United States, I say, should see this establishment 
raised up in opposition to them, hostilities would arise from all sides The republic of the 
north would not support the imperial monarchy of Mexico, and war would break out 
sooner or later. Such are the perils into which you lead Prince Maximilian by inviting him 
to assume an impossible and impracticable position, one which would be ruinous for France 
if she persisted in such an enterprise. [Applause on several benches ] 

Numerous voices. Let us adjourn. 

The President. I presume 1he discussion will be adjourned till to-morrow? 

Numerous voices. Yes, yes. 

The President. However, it is well that we should understand on what ground the dis- 
cussion now stands. There are two amendments relative to Mexico. 

M Jules Pavre. Will the president please to permit me to make a simple observation ? 

The President. With the greatest pleasure. 

M. Jules Favre. We withdraw our amendment. 

M. Glais Bizoin. Yes, if the discussion is continued to-morrow. 

M. Jules Favre. Yes, we withdraw our amendment, if the discussion continues to-mor- 
row on the amendment supported by M. Thiers. 

The President. The question is not on stopping the discussion, but on properly under- 
standing the state of the debate at present and before adjourning it over until to-morrow. 
[Applause ] 

A portion of my intended remarks is rendered unnecessary by the withdrawal of one of 
the amendments as just announced by M. Jules Favre. It remains to me to say that it is 
necessary to specify precisely the character of the amendment to be discussed to-morrow, 
and that we should establish the difference that exists at bottom, though it is not evident 
in the terms, between the amendment and the paragraph of the address. [Marks of assent.] 
When I read both, they appear to me perfectly concordant in thought and purpose. I hope, 
then, that this confusion will be cleared up to-morrow. 

M. Thiers Mr. President, please read the amendment. 

From all sides. To-morrow. 

The President. I will read it to-morrow. 

The assembly adjourned at half past six o'clock. 



DISCUSSION IN THE FRENCH CHAMBERS. 

SPEECHES OF MESSRS. THIERS AND FAVRE. 

Corps Legislative, session of Wednesday, 27th of January, 1864, presidency of his excel- 
lency the Due of Moray. 

President de Morny. As I announced yesterday, I proceed to read the amendment 
actually under discussion, that presented by Messrs. de Grammont, D'Andelarre, Thiers, 
Lambrecht, Malezieux, Ancel, Plichon, Martel : 

"Whilst applauding the courage and heroic perseverance of our soldiers, France is 
anxious about the proportions and the duration of the expedition to Mexico ; she earnestly 
desires a speedy conclusion to put a stop to the sacrifices which this expedition costs us, 
and to prevent the political complications of which it might become the occasion." 

Now the paragraph of the address is as follows : 

"The distant expeditions to China, Cochin-China, and Mexico, in succession, have in 
fact troubled the minds of many persons in France very much on account of the sacrifices 
and obligations which they induce. We should be happy to see the speedy realization of 
the good results for which your Majesty gives us reason to hope." 

Gentlemen, I do not pretend to say that both are absolutely identical ; only that, com- 
bining the double quality of president of the Chamber and chairman of the committee, I 
am so much the more entitled to demand that the questions should be well weighed. It 
is for the general interest, and I know the Hon. M. Thiers too well to doubt of his appro- 
bation in this respect. 

M. Thiers. Certainly, certainly. 

President de Morny. He cannot desire an equivocation ; M. Berrycr cannot desire it 
either ; the Hon. M. Jules Favre, who presented an amendment still more expressive, will 
also be of this opinion ; and I can affirm that the committee and the Chamber, no less 
than the government, desire on equivocation. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 309 

M. Thiers. Nobody desires it. 

President de Morny. If no one desires it, I must say that the terms of the address and 
the terms of the amendment seem almost identical The difference, therefore, must 
appear from the developments. I say this in order that the conclusions should be well 
weighed and the Chamber may know what it will have to vote upon. 

The committee has expressed the same wish to see the Mexican expedition come to a 
speedy conclusion. It expressed it after having heard the commissioners of the govern- 
ment. Only the committee did not deem itself authorized to propose to the Chamber to 
dictate a practical solution to the government, leaving to each one its responsibility. The 
Chambers vote supplies, or refuse them, and express their desires; but the Chambers 
dictate neither the management of the armies nor the diplomatic conduct of the govern- 
ment. [Good, good.] 

What had the committee to do? It has expressed its wish to see the government with- 
draw as soon as possible, and with honor, from Mexico. It did not wish to go further, 
and the Chamber will understand why : it is because it would have thereby accepted a 
share of the responsibility for the consequences, supposing that in consequence of the 
adoption of the proposition of the honorable M. Thiers, which consists in treating with 
Juarez, or of the proposition of the honorable M. Berryer, which consists in treating with 
Almonte, a reaction should follow, and all those who have taken part for France should 
be persecuted, should see their goods confiscated, and should be ruined themselves, perhaps 
massacred. It is understood that the Chamber is not authorized to enter upon such 
responsibilities ; the Chamber lets the government act, as it is acquainted with the 
question and can judge it more closely, and can come to a rational decision based on the 
full knowledge of all the circumstances, whilst accepting the share of responsibility that 
belongs to it. As to the committee, it had but one wish to express ; that wish is in accord 
with the sentiment of the Chamber, with that of the country, and probably, as you will 
understand hereafter, with the desires of the government. Consequently, I return to the 
starting point : I request the authors of the amendment to be as precise as the honorable 
M. Thiers, who has spoken on the other amendment, and, in defending this one, to specify 
their conclusions. 

M. Thiers. Gentlemen, since I have been referred to, you will consider it quite natural 
for me to take the floor. 

Well, let us first explain clearly the principle of constitutional right. To dictate has 
not been for a moment in our intentions. We would be forgetful, even under the most 
rigorously constitutional system, of the limit of our duties, we would be forgetful of the 
limit of propriety, if we had intended to dictate a course of conduct to the government ; 
and as for myself, I said some days ago that I conceded to the government the initiative 
in all things. 80 we are perfectly agreed on that point. T< e word dictate is not, to my 
eyes, a constitutional expression. I repudiate it, for my part ; but whilst repudiating the 
word dictate, I accept from the mouth of the president— and I cannot accept a better rendi- 
tion than his — I accept the word wish. [Sensation ] Do you frankly ask us our wish ? 
Do you sincerely desire it? I will give it to you very clearly. 

The President. That is what I ask. 

M. Thiers. So we are agreed in this. The question is not to dictate on our part, but 
to express a wish, and a wish well deserves to be taken into consideration, for each of us 
here represents France in his own very slight way, and I do not propose to speak here 
merely as a deputy from Paris. No, we are all equal here, quite equal. [Good ] I pro- 
pose to speak for my 290th part ; I know not whether this is exactly the ratio of represen- 
tation. Well, in my opinion, the wish of France is this : that as soon as possible, and as 
honorably as possible, we should withdraw from Mexico. [Interruption.] Gentlemen, it 
is not your wish that I propose to express. 

Various voices. You have our approbation. Your wish is the wish of the committee. 

M. Thiers. So much the better ; and so when I took as the divisor of the fraction 
which I represent the number 290, I was mistaken ; I should have taken a smaller 
number. I am delighted that we are somewhat more numerous than I thought. 

Numerous voices. All, all. 

M. Thiers. I thank Heaven, we are all agreed. 

M. Belmontet. No, not all. 

M. Thiers Only it is necessary to endeavor to find expressions on which the agreement 
can be maintained. [Various manifestations.] 

Some voices. Ah ! ah ! 

M. Thiers. Ah ! well, we all wish to withdraw from Mexico as soon as possible. 

Some voices. Honorably. 

M. Thiers Eh ! undoubtedly. The president did us the honor just now of telling us — 
or rather did me the honor of telling me, for he was pleased to address himself to me — 
that his text much resembled ours. [Sensation.] 



310 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

President de Morny. It is not my text. 

M. Timers. It is not yours, Mr. President, in the same way that the amendment which 
I have signed is not mine. 

Presi lent de Morny. I have not said that it was yours. 

M. Thiers. Yes, Mr. President, you said so ; hut it does not matter. I say ours, 
because the necessary concurrence of several signers in the presentation of amendments 
requires this expression. 

Well, I must tell the President that, after having read the paragraph of the address with 
the greatest attention and sought to find in it any likeness whatever to the text of the 
amendment, I have been unable to discover any. What, in fact, says the text of the 
address ? 

"The distant expeditions of China, Cochin-China, and Mexico, in succession, have in 
fact troubled the minds of many persons in France very much, on account of the sacrifices 
and obligations which they induce " 

Thus far we agree. 

" We acknowledge that they must inspire in distant regions respect for our countrymen 
and for the French flag, and that they must also develop our commerce, but we shall be 
happy to see the good results soon realized for which your Majesty gives us reason to hope." 

If fatigue has yet left me any understanding, it seems to me that this means the follow- 
ing : Many wicked tongues have condemned these distant expeditions ; they have said 
"that they trouble the minds of many persons in France very much on account of the 
obligations and sacrifices which they induce." Well, sire, we do not share in the opinion 
of these wicked tongues, for "we acknowledge that these expeditions must inspire in 
distant regions respect for our countrymen and for the French flag." [Interruption.] 

So, the sense of the paragraph of the address is, in my opinion, thus : These distant 
expeditions have been blamed, but we are not of this opinion. We acknowledge that 
these expeditions will have such and such advantages which we are impatient to see 
realized. 

Such is the sense of the paragraph of the address. And what is the wish that we 
express in the amendment ? Undoubtedly, we do not pretend to say that all distant 
expeditions have been useless or unfortunate ; but we say that in general they present 
great dangers, and that, in particular, the expedition to Mexico is inauspicious in itself, 
and destined to produce only calamitous results. [Various interruptions] This is our 
idea 

Count de la Tour. I request permission to speak. 

M. Thiers. And see here in what terms, very different from those of the paragraph of 
the address, we express it : 

" Whilst applauding the courage and the heroic perseverance of our soldiers, France is 
troubled at the proportions and duration of the Mexican expedition ; she ardently desires 
that a speedy conclusion should put a stop to the sacrifices which this expedition costs us, 
and prevent the political complications of which it might become the occasion." 

So, the two points of view are very different : on the one side there are persons who find 
that maritime expeditions, although they are attended with many disadvantages, have, 
however, this advantage of causing our countrymen and our flag to be respected, of pro- 
moting our commerce, and these persons desire that those results should be speedily 
obtained; on the other side there are persons who, without opposing all distant expedi- 
tions, specify this to Mexico, and to this attribute no possible good result, and desire to see 
it discontinued as soon as possible. 

Now, as to treating with such or such a government, that is a distinct question. 
Numerous voices. Not at all ; not at all ; that is the very question itself. 
M. Thiers. I retract nothing of what I said yesterday, but I state the question thus : 
Treat with whom you please, Juarez or anybody else, but beware of sending out a prince ; 
for, when you send him out under such circumstances as the present, it can only be under 
your responsibility. [No, no.] We are honorable men ; we are upright men. When you 
send out a prince, do you not make yourselves responsible for his subsequent fortune ? 
Numerous voices. No, no. 

Other voices. We do not send him out ; he goes to Mexico freely and of his own accord. 
M. Granier de Cassagnac. That depends on what conditions we have made with him ; 
we are responsible only as far as we are bound by our engagements. 

M. Thiers. I would wish to be able to sum up all objections in one in order to reply to 
them. Let one objector be appointed to discus-; with me, and I shall take it upon myself 
to discuss with him ; but I cannot do so with fifty persons. When fifty persons cry out all 
at once, they can say what they please ; but I defy any man of good sense and good faith 
to tell me here publicly in discussion that, in sending out a prince to Mexico under our 
responsibility, we do not assume a moral engagement to sustain him. [Cries of No, no ] 
What would the contrary mean? [Noise] 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 311 

M. Granier de Ca.ssagnac. It is the prince himself that wishes to go to Mexico ; we do 
not send him there. 

M. Andre (de la Charente.) You cry out to him not to go, and yet he goes. 

M. Thiers. You ask for light and I give it to you. I say that the integrity of France 
is pledged to protect a prince when you send him beyond the seas. 

Sev*ral voices. No, no. 

M. Thiers. Well, let those who think that the good faith of France is not pledged rise 
and proclaim it. Let them so record their votes, and then the prince will know on what 
conditions you send him to Mexico. [Numerous exclamations of Very good, very good.] 

M. Granier de Cassagnac. He knows the conditions. 

M. Thiees. They say that we conceal ourselves behind equivocations. It is not we 

[Exclamations.] 

President de Mornt. Who does conceal himself behind equivocations ? 

M. Thiers That was not intended to be addressed to you, Mr. President ; I shall always 
he courteous towards a president who shows so much courtesy to me 

But I say that those who, in taking away a prince from his family and country to send 
him to a distant region, whilst pretending to bind themselves to no engagements towards 
him, conceal themselves behind equivocations. What ! he goes at our call, under our pro- 
tection, and yet we are under no engagement to him ! 

A member. Let the government explain ; it is its duty to tell us. 

M. Thiers. It is pretended there is no engagement. Why then were we told yesterday, 
that because General Almonte and his friends were at the city of Mexico, because they had 
formed a government with our assent, we could not now abandon them? 

When 1 said, " Treat with any party, with Juarez if you wish," it was replied : "That 
would be a shame." They are not very choice in their expressions to us, you are witnesses ; 
we are particular with them, but they are not at all particular with us. [Interruption.] 
For my part, I have been always particular. However, it does not matter^much ; I shall 
sacrifice, without pain, my self-love to my conscience and to moderate liberty. They may 
take any license they please with me ; I shall suffer anything that does not attack my dig- 
nity and self-respect, and I shall never imprudently compromise the sacred cause of that 
moderate liberty which France now claims, and for which I shall ever struggle. [Appro- 
bation from several benches.] 

Therefore, we were told yesterday that, in abandoning General Almonte and some of his 
friends who have compromised us, who have conducted us before Puebla, where six thou- 
sand French have been stopped, we were told that to abandon these auxiliaries would be a 
shame. 

How ! it, would be a shame to abandon General Almonte and his friends, to whom we are 
under no obligation ; and when a prince shall have been installed at Mexico, conducted 
thither by you, when your soldiers shall have overrun a part of Mexico to give, so they say, 
the Mexican people an opportunity to vote ; when all this shall have been accomplished, 
you will dare to tell us that there will be no engagement entered into with that prince ! 
If that be so, gentlemen, words have two meanings They have one sense to-day and to» 
morrow another. For us, they never have but one sense, because our words are the words 
of honesty, and honesty never uses but one language. 

Yesterday I said, and I repeat it now — for when we treat of suchmatters as these, the 
quality of the persons increases still more the gravity of the engagements entered into — I repeat 
that, when a prince is taken from one of the greatest reigning families of Europe, when that 
family is asked for a prince to be delivered up to the hazards of those civil wars so frequent 
in Mexico, to pretend that there is no obligations contracted towards him and his, is to ad- 
vance a very strange idea not at all honorable to France. 

It is for this reason that I allowed myself yesterday to call the most serious attention of 
the Chamber to the course of action to which we are about to be dragged. 

What was said yesterday on the subject? Mention was made of facts already judged ; 
and I was astonished to hear so experienced a lawyer as the honorable M. Chaix d'Est-Auge 
speak of faots already judged where there is question of politics. It is all well enough 
when we speak of the decisions of courts ; I admit that then the authority of facts already 
judged may be invoked, but I cannot admit it in political matters. I can admit it, for ex- 
ample, for the guidance of the Chamber,, when it verifies the powers of its members ; be- 
cause, in the question of elections, geptlemen, you are supreme judges. In this case 
the authority of adjudged facts can be invoked ; but in politics is there ever an adjudged 
fact ? Truly, I have never before heard such a maxim advanced. It matters not, however ; I 
accept the expression ; but it should serve as a lesson to you. You may now judge of the 
use that will be made next year of your decision of this year. They will tell you that you 
have already decided, that you have authorized the establishment of the Mexican monarchy, 
that you cannot permit that establishment, scarcely commenced, to fall, and that it must 
be sustained. Well, I, who consider this expression of adjudged fact rather badly employed 



312 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

yesterday, I say that it will have some share of truth this time, and that it will be difficult 
for you to refuse your fleets and your soldiers. It is for this rea-on that I entreated the 
Chamber, and that I entreat it now again, to be on its guard as to the vote that it will 
give. When on the morrow of the day of your vote the prince shall set out, the situation 
will be very seriously changed. At present, while I am speaking, we are still free, and so 
is the government. Let it employ that method of solution that it may find best, for do 
not think that I constitute myself the patron of Juarez ; I know not him or his For me, 
Juarez is the representative of the party reputed to be the strongest, and I say : Treat with 
the strongest party, with the party which you consider as such, siuce you seek to rally it 
around you, the opinions of which you recognize as good, since now the honorable General 
Bazaine sacrifices Monseigneur de Labastida to those opinions. 

If you do not wish to treat with Juarez, treat with the prominent men of his party ; de- 
mand of them the sacrifice of Juarez ; that is of no consequence to me ; for, fortunately, I 
am not charged with the management of public affairs, and in any case it would be here 
that the president would have reason to say that the word dictate would be out of place. In 
fine, let the government act as it pleases ; still a most important point, a point most emi- 
nently evident and clear as noonday, is that, by encouraging the departure of the prince, 
we make an engagement to found a monarchy in the New World. Well, I sny that, in the 
general state of affairs throughout the world, it is an engagement that I, for my part, would 
never wish to make, and which I never shall make. Let those make it who wish ; as to 
me, I repudiate utterly any such responsibility. [Vociferous approbation from some benches ; 
applause around the speaker ] 

President de Morny. It does not belong to me to discuss. If I discussed, I should re- 
quest to be superseded in this presidential chair, and I would proceed to take my place on 
one of those benches. I have merely desired to say that, for greater clearness of debate, 
very precise explanations were requisite. Those explanations have been given. They have 
elicited the real sense of the amendment, which, if members confined themselves to criti- 
cising the expedition, both draughts would remain liable to a confusion which might be trou- 
blesome to the Chamber. [That is true ; good.] 

Now, it is well understood that both draughts, the paragraph of the address and the amend- 
ment, if not different in terms, are so at least in their conclusions The Chamber will, 
therefore, know what it has to decide upon and what it has to do. [Good, good ] 

The minister of state requests permission to address you. 

His excellency M. Rouher, minister of state. Gentlemen, I do not rise to discuss the 
various arguments employed, either by the honorable M. Berryer or by the honorable M. 
Thiers. I rise now only to weigh the question, and determine in what terms we should 
continue the debate. 

The honorable M. Thiers has said to you: "We wish to withdraw from Mexico as soon 
as possible ; we wish to withdraw honorably." The Chamber has accepted these two decla- 
rations. In fact, these two declarations are the sentiment of the majority and the senti- 
ment of the government [Good ] 

But the government thinks that it would not be honorable to withdraw by treating with 
Juarez. [Good, good.] The government thinks that it cannot treat with General Almonte, 
who does not represent a regularly constituted authority ; that it can negotiate only with 
a government springing from universal suffrage, when a contract shall have been estab- 
lished between the Mexican nation and the Archduke Maximilian, if he is elected. In thus 
treating with this sovereign, the French government will not have contracted a permanent 
and indefinite obligation to maintain an empire in Mexico. 

This is how the question stands, and in this light I shall discuss it in my turn. But, at 
present, there is a difference of opinion. You wish to treat with Juarez. [No, no ; yes, 
yes] 

M. Thiers. No ; I request to say a few words. 

A voice. Yes ; you proposed to do so. 

The Minister of State. Let us avoid personal reflections. The honorable M Thiers has 
complained that the organs of the government sometimes attacked him with harshness. 
If they have done so they have acted unintentionally ; they respect his character and his 
person alike. 

M. Thiers. I thank you. 

The Minister of State. They respect him, and especially share his sentiments when he 
speaks of his desire to see his country enjoy a regular and rational liberty. The govern- 
ment believes that it has founded that liberty in Frame. [Good, good.] 

M. Thiers. Begun [Exclamations ] 

The Minister of State. The government believes that it has founded that liberty iu 
France; the government is convinced that the developments winch you ask would, by 
their precipitancy, compromise the degree of liberty now attained. [Marks of assent ] 

And now, to return to the point, if 1 was wrong iu saying that the honorable M. Thiers 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 313 

proposed to the Chamber to express a desire to have the government treat with Juarez, I 
took up the general question, and I declare, in the name of the government, that Juarez 
is our enemy, and that we will never treat with him. 

I declare, in the name of the government, that it is equally impossible to treat with 
Almonte ; and the question being thus laid down, I reserve to myself the right of unfolding 
to the Chamber the considerations which justify the principle of this expedition, which 
legitimate its different phases, and which should characterizi its speedy solution. [Good, 
good.] 

M. Berryer. I ask permission to speak. 

President de Morny M. Jules Favre is entitled to the tribune. 

A member. ML de la Tour ouajht to have it before him ; he speaks against the amendment. 

M. Berryer. The question does not seem to me now to be on the absolute merits, but 
on the present phase of the question, as you have very properly observed, Mr. President, 
and on the difference between the paragraph of the address and the amendment. This is 
the point reached in the debate, which is but, in some sort, a preparatory debite to the 
general discussion that will ensue on the amendment. It is thus that I understood the 
debate to have been commenced. 

President de Morny I started the debate on the difference between the two texts, it is 
true, but that question is exhausted, and it has assumed the proportions of the real discus- 
sion by the speech of M. Thiers, which the minister of state has just auswered by a simple 
declaration. It would be impossible for me to allow this debate to go on, which is merely 
based on a difference in the understanding of the two texts, which, I believe, I have de- 
monstrated to the Chamber. The discussion should now continue on the main point, and 
M. Jules Favre is entitled to speak on the subject. 

M. Berryer. It is on the declaration of the minister of state that I desire to say a word, 
and as to the difference of the two draughts. [Interruption.] 

President de Morny. M. Jules Favre insists on his right to speak. 

M. Berryer. I have but one word to say. [Speak, speak.] 

The declaration of the minister of state is a reply to the question which I asked yester- 
day of the government : Is it willing to treat with the government which it has established 
at Mexico, or does it desire to wait and establish the authority of the Archduke Maximilian ? 
[Interruption.] 

Allow me. The minister of state has made a complete reply to the question which I 
submitted yesterday to the assembly. The minister of state has said: The government 
cannot treat with Almonte, because Almonte is only a provisional establishment which has 
no legal character in that country of Mexico. 

The government must wait for the imperial establishment of the Emperor Maximilian, 
if he is elected, [noise ;] the government must wait till he is recognized by means of 
universal suffrage in order to treat with him ; and here it is — in view of the answer given 
to my question of yesterday by the minister of state — -that the difference exists between 
the two draughts There is a kind of equivocation and ambiguity in the address ; there is, 
on the contrary, in the amendment, a very clear expression of the desire of the assembly 
to see a speedy conclusion put an end to the sacrifices which this expedition costs us, and 
prevent the political complications of which it might become the occasion. 

In this state of affairs there is but one question more, and on this the assembly desires 
to be satisfied : Is it true that the government has made no engagement to bind the coun- 
try, either in a financial point of view, or as regards its soldiers ? Are we under any obli- 
gation, or are we not ? 

His excellency M. Rouher. If you had read the report of the honorable M. Larrabure you 
would have been instructed. 

M. Segris I request permission to say one word, in order to complete the remark of the 
minister of stare in reference to the report of M Larrabure. Here is the reply of the 
organs of the government which I find in that report, and which I, for my part, fully 
accept : 

" At this moment the Emperor's government declares" — 

M. Thiers. At this moment ! 

M. Segris. "At this moment the Emperor's government declares that it has made no 
engagement with any one either to leave a corps of French troops in Mexico, or to guaran- 
tee any loan whatever ; it declares that it has no reason to think that it is necessary to 
increase the number of the French forces actually on the soil of Mexico ; that the movements 
which will take place up to their withdrawal shall be for no other object than to replace 
the sick and those entitled to discharge." 

M. Thiers At this moment ! [Various kinds of manifestations ] 
M. Segris That is exactly the declaration which the minister of state has confirmed. 
His excellency M. Rouher, minister of state. I retract nothing whatever of it. 
President de Morny. M. de la Tour is entitled to speak. 



314 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Count de la Tour. Gentlemen, the declarations which you have just heard have enlightened 
us on what we have to do, and we know how our votes should be. Undoubtedly we must 
regret that the so rapid succession of the expeditions to China, Cochin-China, and Mexico, 
have occurred to weigh down our finances almost simultaneously, and to derange for a 
moment the equilibrium of our budget. Undoubtedly we must regret that the defection 
of Spain and England has constrained us to give such considerable proportions to our 
Mexican expedition ; but it is impossible for the majority to give way to the exaggerated 
statements made in this assembly. 

It is impossible for us to lay a formal, absolute blame on our troops engaged in a national 
contest against an enemy who has shown himself unworthy of our generosity, against gen- 
erals who have even violated military honor, for among them there are some who had 
been let free on their parole, and who have again taken up arms against us. 

In the first place, gentlemen, the simple examination of the situation should suffice to 
make us reject the amendment proposed. Whenever our army has been engaged abroad 
in a conflict for a just and noble cause, it is impossible for a French Chamber to desert its 
flag, and in a kind of a way pass over to the enemy by passing a resolution of disavowal 
of the acts of our soldiers. [Interruptions of various kinds.] 

Yes, it is thus, gentlemen, that I believe myself authorized to interpret the amendment 
proposed to you ; it is a formal disavowal of the expedition, a formal censure of the mon- 
archy which we propose to establish in Mexico. Now, I believe that, from the moment 
we were led to Mexico, the very best course for us to adopt was precisely to endeavor to 
establish a monarchy in Mexico. 

In fact, gentlemen, consider the necessity of establishing a certain equilibrium in Mexico. 
[Noise.] 

Please dwell upon one consideration, certainly a most important one ; it is, that one of 
two things must occur: either our intervention will succeed in constituting a strong, wise, 
honorable, and regular government in Mexico — and then it will be possible for you to derive 
some advantages from your expedition — or else, in a few years, Mexico will certainly be 
swallowed up by the States of North Amsrica, which have already, in the short period of 
twenty years, taken away from it three of its finest provinces— Texas, California, and New 
Mexico. [Increased noise.] 

Gentlemen, if the Chamber is not willing to grant me a few moments of attention I 
shall stop. [No, no; goon.] But I believe, however, that the considerations which I 
have to present, and which will be brief, merit the interest of the legislative body. 

What is the natural and normal fruit of the republican form of government? Revolu- 
tions. What is the natural and normal fruit of monarchy ? Stability. So, on one side, 
we have instability ; on the other, stability. Such are the respective results of monarchy 
and republicanism. 

Now, if we allow republicanism to continue in Mexico, without any effort to organize in 
that country a wise and honorable government — that is to say, a monarchical government — 
it will be utterly impossible for us to derive from our costly expedition the advantages for 
which we have reason to hope. 

Several members That is true. 

Count de la Tour. It is impossible for me, therefore, to blame the government for the 
policy which it has pursued, and I shall urge the legislative body to vote for the address 
as it stands. I oppose the amendment, in the first place, because we ought to try to main- 
tain a sort of equilibrium in the New World ; because it would be dangerous hereafter, for 
the peace of Europe itself, that Mexico should belong to a power so important as the United 
States, which would very soon, by taking in the five little republics of Central America, 
reach the Gulf of Darien and the isthmus of Panama, whence they would rule the commerce 
both of the Atlantic and of the Pacific oceans. I oppose the amendment, in the second 
place, because it is necessary that the majority, under such grave circumstances, whilst fol- 
lowing the dictates of conscience, should remain united. Our union is indispensable to the 
country — within for its peace, without for its influence and its strength. [Approbation on 
many benches.] 

M. Jules Favbe Gentlemen, 1 believe I divine the desire of the Chamber, and conform 
myself to it, in taking up the discussion at the point where it was left by the remarkable 
speeches which you heard in the session of yesterday, and by the circumstances that have 
occurred in that of to-day, and in rejecting, henceforth, such details as concern accom- 
plished facts, and in regard to which many reasons might be presented for us to draw up 
easy but useless accusations. 

Already, gentlemen, we have had occasion to express our opinions on the causes of this 
expedition to Mexico, which, from the very first day, we have considered as inauspicious, 
and an calculated to lead the country into serious embarrassment. 

Succeeding events have not been such as to authorize us to change our opinion, and this 
opinion has received the suppoit and defence of the eminent speakers who have laid before 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 315 

you such considerations, political, financial, and of national interest, as should most as- 
suredly strike you with their gravity, and which I shall be careful not to repeat, for fear 
that they should become weak in my hands. 

But, if you will allow me, I shall endeavor to look at the question from an entirely dif- 
ferent point of view ; and the minister of state has authorized me to do this by an expres- 
sion to which he gave utterance, and which leads me back very forcibly to the natural 
prepossession of my mind on this subject. 

This prepossession is in regard to right, superior, undoubtedly, to all considerations of 
policy and interest; and if this right, such as it is, revealed to us both by the eternal 
principles to which we can never prove recreant without loss, and by formal engagements 
on the part of the government — if this right, I say, completely confirms the conclusions of 
which you heard the brilliant developments yesterday, we shall have deduced from thence, 
for the security of our consciences, the support of a demonstration which we will have the 
right to call inflexible. 

We have to consider these questions : What are we doing in Mexico ? What ought we 
do ? Should we withdraw from it, and under what conditions ? 

M. Edward Dalloz May I be permitted to say a few words ? 

M. Jules Favre. I confess, gentlemen, I am not in any way embarrassed by that which 
was said to you in the session of yesterday by the honorable commissioner of the govern- 
ment, who sought to put forward, as his justification of the propositions which he brought 
before you, the support given by the votes of .this Chamber. 

He received for answer, in my opinion very justly, that those votes should naturally be 
inspired by circumstances changeable in their nature. Moreover, on this very point I ask 
permission of the honorable commissioner of the government to be allowed to agree with 
him ; and, as he appeals to the formal engagements of the government, I appeal, also, to 
the votes of the Chamber, given only after the positive declarations of which I shall have 
the honor to remind you, and which really form a solemn contract between the majority 
and the government. 

And, since mention has been made of the authority of adjudged facts, it seems to me 
that an authority so potential might have been invoked to qualify that which has been re- 
cognized here without dispute, that is, the judgment pronounced by public opinion on the 
Mexican expedition, and of which I find the traces, not in documents, of which the pro- 
duction might be criticised by you, but, on the contrary, in official papers, the weight of 
which you cannot question. 

The first I borrow from the language of the sovereign himself. When the session was 
opened, he thought it indispensable to say a word in this regard, and that word ought to 
be well weighed by you. 

" The distant expeditions," says the speech from the throne, "which have been the 
object of so much criticism, have not been undertaken in pursuance of any premeditated 
plan ; the force of circumstances has brought them about, and yet they are not to be re- 
gretted." 

For what good, gentlemen, remark those prepossessions and those criticisms in a docu- 
ment in which ordinarily only unanimous approbations are mentioned ? It must necessarily 
be that those murmurs of public opinion, whatever otherwise be the difficulties which they 
may have to reach the throne, have been very powerful, so as to have been noticed in a 
document of that nature. 

I wish to place by the side of that document another no less grave, but which you will 
perhaps find more significant. When the minister of finance saw himself under the doubly 
painful necessity — painful, because he is minister of finance, and painful because he had 
made an engagement to the contrary — of reopening the estimates of the public debt, he 
did not dissemble the anxieties, the uneasiness, the restlessness of the country. For this 
he assigned the real cause when he said : 

"I had thought -that it would be possible to avoid this necessity, and that a prompt 
settlement of the affairs of Mexico would, on the one hand, have limited our expenses to 
a sum inferior to that which we have disbursed, and, on the other, have brought, by means 
of a loan contracted for Mexico, the reimbursement of our advances. But, notwithstanding 
the confident hope which we entertained of seeing, within a day not far distant, a regular 
government established in Mexico, we cannot repose the security of our finances on the 
liquidation of her debt to us." 

So, the minister of finance did not dissemble the gravity of that state of affairs resulting 
from this exceptional circumstance that has arisen to trouble our finances, at the same time 
that a profound emotion pervades the whole country ; and I am not rash in affirming that 
the minister of finance is really an anonymous signer of our amendment. [Exclamations 
and laughter.] 

But I find, gentlemen, a concurrence more explicit, more precious still, in a report 



316 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

emanating from one of the committees of the assembly, and which I need not recall to 
your recollections. 

When the question of supplementary credits arose, the honorable M. Larrabure, with an 
ability to which every one renders homage, enters into the discussion of this question 
in his report, and here is the way in which he expresses himself : 

" We should not seek to conceal the fact that these repeated expeditions disquiet the 
nation. Let us hasten, however, to say, in order to be just, that as to that of Mexico, 
which weighs most on the public mind and on our finances, it has attained the increased 
proportions which it is now seen to possess only by a chain of unfortunate incidents which 
the government could neither foresee nor prevent," &c, &c. 

And he added : " The honor of our flag being satisfied, public opinion resumes its pre- 
possessions. In the state of affairs in Europe, in the state of our internal necessities and 
of our finances, it would be pleased that the government should continue only as short a 
time as possible to expend at a distance those resources that may become precious to us 
nearer home and for our works of public utility. These expeditions will perhaps open up 
new horizons, new channels for trade ; but, at present, we must acknowledge that the 
country is less struck by the possible, but uncertain or distant advantages, than by the real 
and actual charges which burden it." 

I could multiply these quotations. You know with what persevering energy the honor- 
able reporter of your committee solicited from the wisdom of the government and the 
foresight of the Chamber the cessation of a state of things which appeared to him so inau- 
spicious 

And beside all these authorities, beside the general acknowledgment of everybody, I can 
also place that of the committee on the address, for our honorable and able president told 
you just now that this wish, of which we seek here to determine the terms of expression, 
is found equally earnest in all hearts Yes, we are unanimous in regretting that imperious 
necessities — thus it was that your committee on supplementary credits expressed them- 
selves — should have engaged the government in a course of action, from which we hope it 
will withdraw as promptly as possible, on the condition, well understood, that the honor 
and interests of France be not compromised [That is so ; that is so.] 

But permit me to tell you, it is here precisely that the difference of opinion commences. 
[Laughter. That is true.] 

Your committee, in this respect, is filled with entire confidence in the views of the 
government. As to us, we respectfully request to be allowed not to share that confidence. 
I will proceed to give you our reasons for this, and to explain to you, in our turn, the desires 
which, in my opinion, might influence in a satisfactory manner the policy which we all 
wish, favorable to the grandeur and the dignity of the country. Well, no one will contra- 
dict me when I say that that which has occasioned, and which yet occasions, the gravity of 
the situation, is precisely the ambiguity which weighs upon it ; it is that it was at its 
origin, and is yet, surrouuded with obscurity. Every one feels it here, and I hope that the 
words of the minister of state will succeed completely in putting an end to it. 

As for me, I shall strive, from my point of view, to tell what the causes are of this 
obscurity, how essential it is that it should disappear entirely, and on what conditions the 
light which alone can strike us, that of honor and probity, ought forever to succeed it. 

When I say that, from the beginning, an inauspicious ambiguity hung over this situa- 
tion, am I not right ? You understand it perlectly, and I have no desire here to undertake 
a discussion which is exhausted, and belongs henceforth to the domain of history 

Was it possible to avoid war in 1861 ? After those dissensions that have so long agitated 
and ensanguined the republics of the New World, was there not beginning to appear a 
constitutional and civil authority to which it was possible to give our adhesion, and which, 
consolidated and strengthened by the protection of the European governments, should con- 
tinue, more and more every day, to acquire a happy influence? 

This is, also, gentlemen, a question for debate which I shall not discuss anew before you. 

It has been decided by the French government The French government thought that 
that new authority did not present it sufficient guarantee ; it made it responsible for the 
iniquities of the governments which it had combated and destroyed ; it has sought to lay 
upon it the responsibility of the bloody acts which, nevertheless, barred its passage to 
power. 

All these things, gentlemen, I recall without even criticising them ; and I say that when 
we allude to the interests of our countrymen which have been outraged, to crimes permitted 
to go unpunished, to the law of nations violated — when we allude to all these things, in 
order to make war on a country, we are right and just; that when France drew the sword 
against Mexico, supposing that, in fact, she had reason to do so, she was evidently acting 
within the limits of right, and no one ever denied it. 

Only it is here that lor me the uncertainty begins, and I lake the liberty of asking the 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 317 

government to be pleased, if it thinks it proper, to give me an answer to the question which, 
at the present moment and in reference to facts, I take the liberty of proposing to it. 

It is incontestable that at the same time that our charqi d'affaires communicated to the 
department of foreign affairs facts of the greatest moment, when he asked the armed pro- 
tection of France, when he gave information that the indemnities were not paid, that a 
law of Congress had appropriated to other purposes the funds that were to be applied to 
them, it is perfectly certain, I say, that another influence was at work upon our govern- 
ment besides its own. It has been sufficiently intimated to you for me to recall it to your 
minds. 

This influence, gentlemen, was that of persons, some condemned by the political law, 
others proscribed by the revolutions of their country, who had received a generous hospi- 
tality in France, who, full of illusions and hopes, as all exiles are, took their dreams for 
realities, and magnified their own importance to such an extent that it seemed, on nearing 
the coasts of Mexico, that it ought to be enough to determine the course of revolutions 
there. 

I do not concern myself now as to whether those exiles had obtained the ear of the gov- 
ernment, whether they had not been directly placed under its protection, and whether, to 
speak truly, from the first day that the expedition was resolved upon up to this time at 
which I am speaking, the French government has not appeared to manage their affairs. 

In fact, whilst negotiations were being carried on for the reparation of our grievances, 
the Mexican exiles pursued their intrigues and their dreams ; they entertained the French 
cabinet with their lamentations, and unveiled to its eyes the prospect of a revolution which 
might prove fortunate ; for, in place of those governments of a day succeeding each other 
merely to lay before the eyes of the world the scandalous and pitiful spectacle of their 
mutual overthrows, they promised to the great French monarchy a monarchy which as- 
suredly could not be its rival, but which, being placed in its orbit, an agent of civilization 
in the New World, would diffuse everywhere, with our arts and our civilization, the pros- 
perity which is their attendant. 

That these dreams were grand, gentlemen, I shall not assume to discuss ; but that they 
were dreams, when I so affirm, who can now contradict me ? 

Governments should not allow themselves to be led into the opinions of persons around 
them ; they have too great a responsibility, precisely because they have immense power, 
not to have demanded from them a severe account of the determination to which they may 
have come in an unreflecting manner. 

Well, not only did the government open its ears to the words of those exiles — here it is, 
gentlemen, that my question rests, and that it combines itself in the strictest manner with 
the brilliant discussion of the honorable M. Thiers and of the honorable M. Berryer — but 
it is incontestable that when nothing was yet known in Europe of the resolutions of France 
and of the allied powers, the exiles had already opened negotiations with Prince Maxi- 
milian. 

Now, gentlemen, I take the liberty of asking the government, Had it any knowledge 
of this? One of two things must be true : either the government was ignorant of those 
negotiations, or it was acquainted with them. If it was ignorant of them, you understand, 
gentlemen, what accusation we have a right to bring against it ; for those to whom it 

promised its support, those for whom it lavished the blood and the treasures of France 

[Murmurs on several benches.] 

Is it the case that the government was not acquainted with them ? As for me, gentle- 
men, I am convinced that it is not so by any means. I will soon proceed to deduce my 
proofs from official documents. The government knew that the Archduke Maximilian 
had been visited by the exiles ; that a negotiation had been begun. 

I stop short for a moment, gentlemen, and I ask myself whether the Archduke Maximil- 
ian is the first comer ; whether he is some person picked up at random in the midst of a 
revolution, nourished by the exaggerated hopes or by the factitious promises of the exiles ; 
or whether, on the contrary, he does not belong in Europe to a reigning house, and whether, 
consequently, the designation that shall be made of him is not a desigaation eminently 
political ? 

The answer to this question could not be doubtful. I believe that it would be proper for 
the government to tell us what the negotiations have been in this respect with the house 
of Austria Has the hoiise of Austria been aware of these projects ? Has it approved 
them ? It could not have been ignorant of them. If it has not approved them, the French 
government finds its policy condemned by this very fact from the very first day that it 
sprung into existence ; for, by the side of a reigning prince of a powerful sovereign who 
disposes of the forces of a great empire, they proceed to take him who is the nearest to 
him by blood, his brother. It knows that that Emperor does not approve the negotiations 
of which that prince is the object, and yet the French government continues them. And 
here, gentlemen, by the invincible logic of facts, by a chain of events through which your 



318 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

wisdom alone can break, the responsibility of France commences where her action com- 
mences, and her protection is extended which we could not disavow without dishonor to 
ourselves. [Good.] 

It is certain, then, that in those first moments, when negotiations were going on, when 
the exiles made frequent journeys to Vienna, when they broached the matter to Prince 
Maximilian, the government knew all these things, and approved them. The government 
foresaw that eventuality ; that the exiles might stir up a reactionary movement in their 
country, thanks to the presence of the French armies, and then it seemed opportune, if a 
throne was raised, to seat upon it a prince of the house of Austria. 

These purposes could not continue confined to the government alone ; public opinion and 
this Chamber are judges of them. They may be good or bad ; but it is evident that you 
would renounce your right of initiative if you did not express some opinion on this point. 
I have no opinion to offer ; in accordance with the ideas which I enunciate, and of which 
you must acknowledge the simplicity and force, I hasten to proceed with the examination 
to which you have been invited. 

France, thus involved with these exiles, saw a double prospect opened before her. She 
was going to Mexico to avenge the injuries done there to our countrymen ; she had the 
right to do this. She was going there to obey the instigations of the exiles and to establish 
there that eventual monarchy for which she reserved her eventual candidate also ; in this 
I positively maintain that France had not the shadow of a right to support her— she had 
in her favor only an intrigue of which she made herself the instrument. [Several voices : 
Good, good.] 

Are we, then, reduced to this remarkable degree of humiliation that we have to discuss 
here in your presence the question whether a great people can proceed to instigate internal 
changes among another friendly people by means of the appearance iu its waters of an 
armed force unfurling there the standard of a party ? 

I do not wish to insult you so far as to believe that any discussion could be had on this 
subject within these walls. The law of nations condemus, brands, such attempts ; when- 
ever they have been tried in history, they have almost always met with the pointed con- 
demnation of impartial and honorable minds. 

M. Glais Bizoin. Good, good. 

M. Jules Favbe Yes ; I have the right to assert that, in this war undertaken by France, 
there were two motives — the one perfectly legitimate, the other not so. 

Now, what has happened ? These things were so well understood that, at the discussion 
of the address of 1862, when events were yet in a state of uncertainty, it was sought to 
throw a discreet veil — too discreet, perhaps, fur the veracity of the French administration — 
over facts which now stand forth in the full light of day. 

When this Mexican expedition was resolved upon, when the Chamber was called upon to 
take it into consideration in the discussion of the address of 1862, we, gentlemen, for our 
part, saw in it the germs of real misfortune to our country ; we asked — and you will see in 
what terms — that this expedition should be restricted within what appeared to us legal 
limits ; and certainly, gentlemen, many of those who do me the honor of listening to me, 
and, I am convinced, many of those even who deemed it their duty, in obedience to the 
dictates of their consciences, to vote against an amendment presented by the opposition, 
wished in the bottom of their hearts that no departure had ever been made from that policy. 

" We see with regret," said we, "the Mexican expedition undertaken ; its purpose seems 
to be to interfere in the internal affairs of a people. We request the government to prose- 
cute only the reparation of our grievances." 

This, gentlemen, was the interest of Fiance, which we defended. As to the other object, 
which appeared to us involved in clouds and obscurity, we manifested our distrust and 
warned the government. 

Now, gentlemen, rumors have reached us in Europe from the American shores which 
have given us to understand that there was an underground intrigue carried on, and that 
there was already some agreement with a prince of the house of Austria. We said so to 
the Chamber. Our assertions received from him who sat on that bench [the speaker points 
to the bench occupied by the commissioners on the part of the government] the most 
unqualified denial. Listen, gentlemen, to the words of the honorable M. Billault: 

"And as to those rumors," said the honorable member, "which gave umbrage to the 
ambassador of her Britannic Majesty, permit me not to dwell upon them. Some officers, 
at their departure, said that they were going to Mexico to enthrone a foreign prince there. 
How ! Do you imagiuc that the great secret of the diplomacy on the subject, if it ever 
had any existence, would have thus been intrusted to the first coiner setting out to Mexico ? 
This surely is not serious. If, as you say, our ally has been disquieted by such rumors, 
you told us also that she immediately applied to that quarter where Bhe could really learn 
whether they were well founded ; she asked our minister of foreign affairs, and you acknowl- 
edge yourselves the answer denied all these rumors. 

"The facts then remain as they really are: a war legitimately imposed on us by our 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 319 

honor and our interests, and which, in concert with our allies, we will carry on with earnest- 
ness ; a hope, a possibility, for the unfortunate Mexicans, if they have strength, or energy, 
or cohesion enough to desire to procure for themselves the benefits of a good government ; 
if they know how to save themselves in that way ; we will be glad of it ; we will find in it 
the only real guarantee of the security of our countrymen ; we will guide them with our 
counsels and with our moral support ; but to constrain them to it by force, never!" 

Is it clear, gentlemen? In fact, it is perfectly certain that the English ambassador 
applied for information to the honorable M. Thouvenel, that the charg6 d'affaires of the 
United States of America made the same request, and that they were answered that there 
was no truth in the report of negotiations with a prince of the house of Austria. Now, 
the negotiations did exist ; they existed before the departure of our troops ; they had been 
made the subject of one of the secret conditions of the treaty of October 31, 1861. If you 
interrogate the text of that treaty, assuredly you will find there nothing of the kind ; but 
if you go to the official documents which were unknown at that time, and which I might 
call the ofneial documents of diplomacy, you will see in them, gentlemen, that the plan 
had been prepared in advance, that the name of Prince Maximilian had been suggested, 
and that he had already received the support of France. This appears, among other papers, 
(for I could make numerous quotations to you in this regard,) from a despatch which bears 
the date of October 11, 1861, addressed by the minister of foreign affairs of France to the 
French ambassador in London. It is, as you see, anterior to the treaty which bears the 
date of the 31st of the same month, and here is what we collect in it relative to the sub- 
ject with which we are now occupied : " I replied," says the minister, " to the English 
ambassador that I was perfectly agreed with his government on one point : that I acknowl- 
edged, with Lord Eussell, that the legitimacy of our coercive action in regard to Mexico 
evidently resulted only from our grievances against the government of that country, and 
that those grievances, as well as the means of redressing them and of preventing their 
recurrence, could constitute the only object of an ostensible treaty." There was then a 
treaty which was not ostensible, and the despatch proceeds to inform us on what it might 
turn. Here, in fact, is what I read further on : 

" But that it seems to me useless to go beyond this, and to prohibit in advance the eventual 
exercise of a legitimate participation in the events of which our operations might be the 
origin," &c. , &c. And further on : " We are allowed to suppose, in fact, that if the issue of 
the Ameiican crisis," (listen to this, and see how much reason we had yesterday to tell you 
that, in the forecast of the government, the Mexican expedition and the enthronement of 
the Archduke Maximilian were connected with the dissensions of the United States, and 
that about that time it was towards this end that all the wishes of the government were 
directed,) "we are allowed to suppose, in fact, that if the issue of the American crisis 
confirmed the separation of the north and the south, the two new confederations would 
both seek for compensation, which the Mexican territory, delivered up to social dissolution, 
would offer to their competition. Such an event could not be a matter of indifference to 
England, and the principal obstacle which could, in our opinion, prevent its accomplish- 
ment would be the establishment in Mexico of a reparative government strong enough to 
arrest its internal dissolution." 

So, gentlemen, it is Dot only for the purpose of avenging our countrymen, it is not only 
to obtain a miserable indemnity, (which moi-t assuredly could never be considered as a 
thing of very great importance in comparison with events so great as those indicated,) that 
the government decided to proceed against Mexico ; it wished to prepare, to facilitate its 
own domination ; it wished, in view of what was being accomplished in the United States, 
to have its place and its share of power by the side of the great American republic, in that 
great state which was going to be founded under its patronage, and which should be its 
vassal for long years, and thus to exercise in the New World a preponderance worthy of 
the great name of France. 
Such, gentlemen, was the idea ; I find it in the despatch which I have just read. 
Now, it is not necessary that the minister of state, ignoring here the ideas which at that 
period were those of the government, should desert the true ground of the question — that 
is to say, that of the preparation of a monarchy for Mexico, that of the negotiations entered 
into in accordance with the suggestions of the exiles, that of the responsibility of France, 
which was already embarrassing. 

And on this subject, also, I take the liberty of remarking to the Chamber that if the 
interests of France could, to a certain point, understood in a certain manner, excuse or 
explain Utopias so dangerous as these, the government ought to be stopped by a considera- 
tion which it was not allowed to ignore : it was that of the rights of Mexico, of its nation- 
ality, which France could not attack without proving recreant to the principle on which 
her own government was founded, and without committing a real act of high treason against 
the law of nations. 

Several voices. Good, good. 



320 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

M. Jules Favre. You are acquainted, gentlemen, with the events that ensued, and I 
have but a few words to say of them. 

Tou know how the alliance, which existed between Spain, England, and France, was 
broken at Orizaba. At that period, when those events were known in Europe, the dis- 
cussion was reopened on the subject on the occasion of the voting of the budget We 
reproduced our observations ; we said that the government had by experience learned the 
emptiness of the hopes entertained by the exiles ; that it knew what reliance could be 
placed on their promises ; that it was evident that they were destitute of popularity in their 
country ; that the aggression of the French army, (even the latter had the exiles in its 
camp,) far from enfeebling the government of Juarez, would, on the contrary, strengthen 
it ; and that we hoped it would be pleased to stop short and discontinue operations which 
thenceforward would be causeless. In fact, the reparation of the grievances which they 
went to obtain could then be procured, for the French had taken possession of Vera Cruz 
and Tampico ; they were in healthy locations which they could keep secuied from all kinds 
of epidemics, where they could not only treat, but wait until those treaties had been car- 
ried into effect. 

What reply did we then receive from the government ? Did it tell us, as the minister of 
state has just done, that we were in presence of an enemy, and that it was necessary for 
us to follow him up in an implacable manner ; that it was impossible for us to treat with 
Juarez, who was branded as an odious tyrant by the animadversions of all honorable men 
to whom the interests of Mexico were dear ? 

Not at all. Here is the language used by the government, and J recommend it also to 
your attention : 

'•When the French flag, which I hope will happen soon, shall float over the walls of the 
city of Mexico, we shall not desist from this generous and protective policy ; all, reaction- 
ists or liberals, violent men or moderate men, shall be admitted alike to this grand 
expression of the public will ; there shall be freedom for all under the folds of the flag of 
France ; and you know well that it will not be the first time that it shall have harbored 
just national manifestations under its tutelary folds. To all there shall be left entire liberty 
of choice, and then, if the tyranny of Juarez suits them, yes, if it suits them, they will 
say so !" 

And you all, gentlemen, cried out,"' Good, good." 

As for me, I could entertain no other opinion than this, with the reservation, however, 
that it appears to me at least very strange that, in order thus to hold the electoral urn in 
which the votes of the Mexicans are to be deposited, we should be under the necessity of 
sending out forty thousand French. But, as to the principle, I confess that it is beyond 
censure. Yes, if France is willing to remain neutral in presence of the national will, I 
have nothing more to say, unless it be that she has continued, in spite of the official declara- 
tion, to attack it openly, since that national will manifested itself by facts the most expres- 
sive, since the government of Juarez rallied around itself, I shall not say the unanimous 
entirety, but a sufficient portion of the Mexican people to wage, war aganst our brave 
soldiers 

Is it not true that our government and our army have been deceived ? Is it necessary to 
remind you of that dolorous but eloquent order of the day issued by General Lorencez, 
who, on turning back to those who called themselves bis friends, and who, in reality, were 
only traitors to him, said to them, You have told us that, in marching towards your cities, 
we would find only crowns of flowers ; yet we have met with an energetic resistance, 
favored, it is true, by natural accidents, a resistance which certainly has not stopped our 
brave soldiers, by the action of which French blo.id has flowed, and flowed in consequence 
of lying promises. This was the result of the expedition in its first phase. 

At the time of the discussion of the address of 1863 we renewed our opposition. In view 
of the events that had transpired, we demanded, in the name of justice, the cessation of 
that expedition which to us appeared fraught with mischief for France. 

I know, gentlemen, at that time to which I refer, as you can do yourselves, the honor- 
able minister of state replied to me in words of eloquence which sent a thrill of sympathy 
throughout this hall, to which I was somewhat grieved that I could not respond. 

Yes, in our nation, which, above all, is generous and warlike, whenever the flag appears 
compromi.-ed or threatened, there are no reasons, no scruples, no opinions that can arrest 
us ; we go where honor, danger calls, where our brethren are threatened. [Good, good ] 

And yet, is it not true that alongside of these great interests for which our predilections 
are as strong as yours, there is another one which towers above them all ? Must we not 
ask ourselves whether, before we seek for glory, we ought not to be most sedulously regard- 
ful of justice ? And, supposing we did not have justice on our side, would it not be most 
impious and unchristian to assert that, because the flag of France has been not vanquished, 
but obliged to suspend its career of victory for a time, on account of fallacious promises, 
it is absolutely necessary, in order to redeem its honor, to pluDge it again in human blood ? 
[Divers manifestations.] 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 321 

As to us, we have protested against that doctrine, and whilst avoiding the utterance of 
a single word that could wound the susceptibilities of the nation, we have thought it our 
duty, as it was our right, to tell the country what we believed to be the truth. 

You voted, gentlemen, against the amendment which we presented. You know what resist- 
ance was encountered before the walls of Pueola ; twenty-two days of struggle and conflict be- 
fore an open city ! If those unfortunate soldiers, who know no obstacles, who lavish their 
lives with an intrepidity which is wholly irresistible, yet were stopped during that fatal time 
which weighed on all our hearts like a mournful anxiety, it was quite necessary that they 
should be employed at something. It was repeated to you with the utmost complacence, 
in order to obtain your votes, that there was in Mexico only the phantom of a government, 
which would disappear at the breath of Almonte. That phantom has clothed itself with 
all the energy of will, of power, and of national resistance. 

After that event it could no longer be doubtful to any one that that mistake, stated to 
be such even in 1862, had acquired all the light of evidence. We had fallen into the trap 
of exiles ; we were carrying out their designs — that is to say, the designs of men legitimately 
detested, covered with crimes, and who could not do aught else than compromise our troops. 
[Cries of dissent.] It was forbidden to us to go any further, unless to go to the city of 
Mexico, whither we had made an engagement to go. The route was open. "We were re- 
ceived there as conquerors ; the official reports so assert. Many triumphs of that kind have 
been dearly bought by those who obtained them. 

However that be, the army entered the city of Mexico. There, in my opinion, ter- 
minated the military expedition, and the political expedition commenced. How was this 
double mission managed ? 

As to the political mission, according lo the report of General Forey, it appears that, from 
the moment our troops entered the capital, the city was in a measure encircled by a cordon of 
partisan rangers, who rendered the country around impracticable to such a degree that fears 
were entertained for the safety of our communications. In this condition of things, General 
Forey felt the necessity of constituting a civil power as soon as possible, and he did well. 

But how did he do in order to constitute a civil power ? It is here that it is important 
to refer to the words uttered by the honorable M. Billault, which determined your vote ; 
for, once again, I rely on the acts of the government and on yours, asking of the govern- 
ment and of you no more than to apply the consequences which flow from the premises to 
which I refer. 

Well, M. Billault told us that when we should reach the city of Mexico, we should plant 
there the standard of France— that is to say, the standard of liberty and of respect for na- 
tionalities ; that all, without exception, would be called upon to manifest the national will. 
That, gentlemen, was the declaration. Ah ! I do not complain of official documents, I 
do not complain of discourses delivered within these halls, I do not complain of programmes 
which are pompously announced here ; I only say that facts are in flagrant contradiction 
with speeches and writings. 

So, after you had announced to France and to Europe that the government which was 
to be established should rest exclusively on the national will, see what has been done. 

M. Dubois de Saligny, the person on whose counsels the government much relied — too 
much, if I am well informed, since M. Dubois de Saligny has ceased to be in the service of 
the department of foreign affairs — M. Dubois de Saligny, whose predilections were well known, 
who could not, moreover, fail to support the success of those friends with whom he had 
made the campaign, nominated a junta composed of thirty-five persons. Out of these thirty- 
five persons there were twenty-two who had held public functions under the government 
overthrown by that of Juarez. And if I wished — a thing, however, which I will take care 
not to do — to go through their biographies, you would see how far these persous were involved 
in the reactionary policy, which, notwithstanding, we had assumed to ourselves no mission 
to reinstate. 

Better still, in referring to the history of Mexico and of its late revolutions, I find that 
those constituent juntas and provisional governments were a kind of national custom, and 
that when in 1860 General Miramon, of whom I have a word to say directly, attained 
power by a coup d'itat, he formed and immediately assembled a junta. 

Well, I have had the consolation of finding among the members of the junta of 1863 
the greater part of the members of the junta of 1860. 

This, gentlemen, is the way in which the national will has been consulted. Then these 
35 members named 195 others ; these 195 constituted, with the 35, an assembly of 230 
persons. 

Is there any serious man that can have a moment's doubt as to the results of the vote of 
such an assembly? The papers announced that it was unanimous. Certainly ; and there 
was something stronger still, and it must be told : that vote was dictated by the force of 
circumstances, and it was impossible for any of the members of that junta to have pre- 
served a real and serious independence. But what must we say of those 230 persons thus 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 21 



322 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

assembled to flaunt in the eyes of Europe and the world the pretended miseries of their 
country, to accuse it of every crime, of every disgrace, of every indignity, when they had 
been themselves in the service of every preceding government which they attack ! 

Several voices. Good, good. 

M. Jules Favre. That is a spectacle of abjection and abasement most disgraceful, from 
which I turn away my eyes, and on which I ask your permission to insist no longer. [Mur- 
murs of disapprobation from some benches ; approbation from others.] 

But what is most serious is, that this junta, thus constituted, has not contented itself 
with saying that it represented the national will ; it has done something much better ; it has 
cast a vote, and what is that vote, gentlemen ? It has been for a constitutional monarchy. 
They have not stopped there ; they have chosen a prince. 

Now, who could this prince be ? The reply is in every mouth, and it is very certain 
that, as we did not for an instant doubt the unauimity of the Assembly of Notables, so 
there was no more reason to doubt that their candidate would be Prince Maximilian. 

Well, gentlemen, permit me to say, if ever the Archduke Maximilian succeeds in reach- 
ing the throne, I hope, and you all hope, he will be the model of princes ; but what I as- 
sert is that, for the present, he is the model of official candidates, [boisterous laughter from 
some benches ; marks of disapprobation from others,] and I know not that a man has ever 
been presented with such a manoeuvring of precautions and such a concurrence of chances 
of success. And when the Assembly of Notables met again, the announcement might well 
be made : 

"The nation adopts for its form of government a limited, hereditary monarchy, with a 
Catholic prince. 

' ' The sovereign shall take the title of Emperor of Mexico. The imperial crown of Mex- 
ico is offered to his Imperial Highness Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, archduke of Austria, 
for himself and his descendants. 

"In case the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian should not, on account of unforeseen cir- 
cumstances, be able to take possession of the throne which is offered to hitn, the Mexican 
nation leaves it to the kindness of his Majesty Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to 
designate another Catholic prince to whom the crown should be offered." 

Let us go to the bottom of things, gentlemen ; let us reason like serious men, like honor- 
able men, and let us say this vote is not the vote of Mexico, but the vote of France, repre- 
sented by her victorious army ; it is the will of France tha't prevails, that is imposed on 
the Assembly of Notables, and thereupon I here replace my question. This Prince Maxi- 
milian, whom I found at the beginning of the negotiations, I find here again in the vote 
of the junta, which is the expression of the ideas of Marshal Forey, there representing his 
government, and I interrogate, gentlemen, the honorable member of the government who 
is now before the assembly, and I ask him : Is not that there the influence, the act, and 
the influence of France ? Are we to be made to believe that, when the glorious eagles of 
France occupied Mexico, when the blood of our soldiers had flowed in streams before Puebla — 
[Interruption.] 

His excellency the Minister of State. You are not willing to avenge it. 

M. Jules Favre. We all regret it alike, and I know not that we can make use of any 
expression of sympathy in this respect which would appear exaggerated. 

What is certain is that the enterprise had succeeded ; we had reached the city of Mexico, 
victorious, all-powerful, and once more, no reasonable man can doubt but that whatever 
victorious France may wish can be and will be done. 

The candidacy and proclamation of Prince Maximilian were the work of France, the 
work of the army. Do you believe that, in an event of so much importance, there was in- 
volved the accomplishment of promises most solemnly made and engagements entered into 
by France ? This is what it behooves us to examine well in this presence. 

When General Forey departed from Europe he did not set out without instructions from 
his government, and we will find in the imperial letter, to which allusion has already been 
made, an exact and circumstantial plan of the line of conduct to be followed by the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army after his entrance into the city of Mexico ; and here again we 
ask ourselves whether the words in this affair have not been belied by the acts. 

Here is what the Emperor said : " When we shall have reached the city of Mexico, it is 
desirable that all the conspicuous men, of every shade of opinion, (of every shade of opinion,) 
who shall have embraced our cause, should come to an understanding with you to form a 
provisional government." 

And listen, gentlemen : "That government shall submit to the Mexican people the ques- 
tion of the political regime that is to be definitively established. An assembly shall then 
be elected in accordance with the Mexican laws." 

Here are the instructions which you gave, and these you have violated. [Divers excla- 
mations.] The Mexican people have not been consulted. 

His excellency the Minister of State. They will be consulted. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 323 

M. Jules Favre. It was not the people that declared that the monarchical principle was 
re-estahlished and that Prince Maximilian should be called to the throne ; it was the junta. 
[Renewed exclamations.] 

Thus you acted in opposition to your instructions, to the orders which you received from 
your sovereign to conform yourselves to the national sovereignty ; these instructions you 
have violated, and instead of seeking for the elements of a provisional government in an 
assembly composed of different opinions, among all men of note, you have sought for them 
only in one party ; that party alone has been the executor of your orders, and those orders 
were the destruction of the republic. [Prolonged interruption.] 

Several voices. Now you have it. [Prolonged disturbance and various manifestations.] 

M. Jules Favre. And it is not only the Emperor of the French who thought that there 
could be imposed on the Mexican people a government which was not of their choice, and 
that it was necessary, above all, to consult them. The Archduke Maximilian has used the 
same language, and this is also one of those points over which there reigns an obscurity 
which, for my part, I would wish with all my heart to see completely dissipated. 

In fact, we have all reasoned, or at least the speakers who have preceded me have 
reasoned on this supposition, that the Archduke Maximilian accepted the crown. Where 
is his letter of acceptance ? Is it in the desk of the minister of state ? 

As you were told, the post of king will end by becoming so difficult that no one will 
desire it, and whenever a crown becomes vacant it will be hard to find any one to take it. 
As to Prince Maximilian, do not believe that he has unconditionally accepted that which 
has been offered to him. 

When the Mexican deputation left America to come to Europe, it was received in France 
with all the regard due to it ; but, if I am well informed, the reception with which it met 
in Austria was very much cooler indeed ; it had not the honor of being received into the 
presence of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, although assuredly his Majesty appears 
extremely interested in the destinies of his brother. 

His Majesty believed that this affair was of such a nature, that it partook so much of the 
romantic, that he would have nothing to do with it. 

In fact, gentlemen, in the correspondence printed in all the journals of Europe, I find 
the following fact : The Emperor Francis Joseph has been asked what part he intended to 
take in the instalment of his brother, and here is what he answered : " What do you wish 
me to do? If my brother had desired to retire to a convent, I could not have prevented 
him from doing so ; how could I hinder him from going to Mexico?" 

There is, perhaps, a great difference between the two suppositions. I do not wish the 
Archduke Maximilian to renounce the world and enter into religion, but I do not certainly 
wish him any the more to try the Mexican adventure. 

That which is an official fact is that the speech delivered by the young archduke at 
Miramar, in presence of the delegation, did not receive the honor of insertion in the Aus- 
trian Moniteur, and that speech deserves to be cited, at least in some of its points, for it 
complicates still more the situation which we are seeking to clear up. What does the 
archduke reply? "On the result of the vote of the assembly of the country, I must, 
therefore, in the first place, make the acceptance of the offered throne depend." 

And this is not all : " If solid guarantees are obtained for the future." 

Here is something for France, who is the godmother, who presents her candidate. The 
prince to whom she addresses her request says to her : I must have guarantees ; without 
guarantees there can be no acceptance. Such has been the stipulation of the prince. He 
understands remarkably well that it is a slippery position ; that the part of improvised 
Emperor cannot be played with impunity in Mexico unless the actor is sustained by some 
important power like France. He wishes France to sustain him. Such are the guarantees 
that he demands. 

" And if the universal suffrage of the noble people of Mexico points to me, I shall be 
ready, with the consent of the illustrious chief of my family, and confiding in the protec- 
tion of the Almighty, to accept the crown." 

Well, I ask the government where is the acceptance, where are the guarantees, where is 
the vote of the Mexican people ; and as long as all these preliminary conditions are not 
fulfilled, France has no right to interfere, to carry on war, to prolong an expedition which 
has no purpose, which has no longer any cause, unless it be a war waged against a people, 
defending their independence and their nationality. [Numerous cries of disapprobation.] 

This is the position in which we stand. I spoke to you just now of the Austrian cabinet. 
See how a sheet, which is not its official organ, but its officious organ, expresses itself in 
reference to the speech delivered at Miramar by the young archduke : " It is easily under- 
stood that the archduke could so much the less accept the offer of the Assembly of Notables, 
(an offer which, hitherto, has met with no adhesions except in a small number of depart- 
ments occupied by the French troops,) as other conditions, such as particularly the effective 
support of the maritime powers, are yet only matters of doubt. England has not yet 



324 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

officially promised her support, although public opinion in that country is favorable to the 
project." 

Well, England has explained her position. I do not wish to fatigue your attention with 
quotations already too long, but I have in my possession the words spoken by Lord Russell, 
in which he declares that, whatever modifications may be effected in Mexico, he will not 
oppose them, but that at the same time he will give them no kind of support. 

So England confines herself to a strict neutrality, and isolated in the midst of the 
American continent, surrounded by jealous rivals, the Emperor whom we are going to 
install in Mexico will have no other safeguards than the guarantees which we shall have 
given him and which he asks in the most formal manner of us. 

Well, I have reason to say that in this affair the purpose which France had in the begin- 
ning, the reparation of the grievances of our countrymen, is entirely lost to view. You 
can no longer say that you pursue the reparation of the grievances of our countrymen ; it is 
impossible. That great and legitimate object has been attained. 

Now, do you wish to oppose the will of Ihe Mexican people, and are we condemned to 
undergo those strange conditions made for us by this expedition which I am right to call 
deplorable, which, to establish a government in Mexico, to constitute an empire there, 
has placed us under the necessity of sacrificing French blood ? [Interruption.] 

They tell us that the population is unanimous ; that we are not only masters of the city 
of Mexico, but that, from all quarters, the partisans of Juarez are abandoning him and 
coming over to us. 

What truth is there, gentlemen, in such talk ? If we must consult official documents — 
and I take them from the Moniteur — here is what I find, gentlemen : 

"We call the attention of our readers to the correspondence from Mexico which we 
publish below. These documents testify to the extreme eagerness with which the Franco- 
Mexican troops have been received by the people of the cities and localities successively 
occupied, and give us reason to presume that at no distant day the greater part of Mexico 
will have spontaneously adhered to the empire." 

The word spontaneously, gentlemen, deserves to figure elsewhere than in the columns of 
the grave Moniteur. It is certain, that when people are forced to acknowledge that the 
adhesions come only from the points occupied by our troops, to add, then, that the empire 
is spontaneously recognized is assuredly to presume a little too much on the credulity of its 
readers. 

The truth is, that in Mexico we are really masters only of the territory which is under 
the wheels of our cannons, under the steps of our soldiers. [Marks of disapprobation ] 

Here is something that proves it in an invincible manner : We are masters of Vera Cruz ; 
we have entered the city of Mexico. Instead of seeking to consult the national will, in 
conformity with the instructions given him, General Forey has organized an expedition ; 
we have resumed military operations ; and why? What can be the object of them ? Who 
can now explain and assign a reason for this military movement, this new sacrifice of men 
and money ? Evidently, gentlemen, there is no man who can explain it in reference to the 
legitimate interest of France ; and if it is not possible to explain how this military enter- 
prise thus continues, do you know what it means ? It is, that outside of the city of Mexico 
we meet resistance, which we are under the necessity of vanquishing, if not at the cannon's 
mouth, at least by the presence of our arms. Yes, wherever we tread the soil we are masters 
of it ; but as to any adhesions whatever coming from countries not occupied, we are not in- 
formed of a single one. 

As to military events, God forbid that I should come here with premature news, to 
throw alarm in any way through the country. [Interruption from many benches.] 
Baron de Geiger. You are not doing anything else but that. 

M. Jules Favre. They have spoken to you of triumphal marches ; they have told you 
that, wherever we have presented ourselves, we have been received as liberators. Yet we 
cannot conceal from ourselves that Guadalaxara resists, and that we are on the point of 
undertaking the siege of it ; and, if military operations are yet indispensable, I ask the 
government, once again, to tell us what can be the cause and the excuse for them. Is it 
not evident that it is because we are fighting against Mexican nationality? [Murmurs of 
disapprobation from several benches.] 

I would much like to know what kind of a government it would be that could resist the 
co-operation extended to adverse parties by a victorious army in possession of its capital. 
As to me, I know none to which I would give the advice to make a trial of the kind. 

Mexico resists, notwithstanding ; and it is here that we have to ask ourselves what we 
have to do ; whether it is possible for us to continue such a policy, and if we must march 
even to San Luis de Potosi. 

You have only to cast your eyes on the map, and you will be convinced that the com- 
missioner on the part of the government fell into an involuntary but capital error when 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 325 

he told you that we occupied the greater part of the Mexican territory. [Cries of disap- 
probation.] 

Several voices. He did not say that. He said the greater part of the people. 

M. Jules Favre. What we occupy — I shall not go into details — are the great centres 
of population ; but we do not occupy all the great centres of population. To the north as 
well as to the west there are yet found cities of vast importance, in which the Mexican au- 
thority, which we combat, is found installed and disposed to resistance. And it will there- 
fore be necessary for us to undertake a campaign against each of these cities. And, over 
and above the 40,000 men already in Mexico, we must yet send thither 10,000 or 15,000 
men ; that is, henceforth we must augment our effective force in Mexico, in order to carry 
on this deplorable expedition, to effect the conquest of Mexico for the benefit of an Austrian 
prince, to dissipate the clouds which the Mexican exiles have gathered, arjd to create that 
power which is repudiated by those even who have most interest in sustaining it. The 
country must be told that it is yet necessary to keep 50,000 or 60,000 men in Mexico, with 
all the materials requisite for their transportation and maintenance. Is that what you 
wish ? [Manifestations of denial.] 

Now, is it difficult to know how and why we cannot, under present conditions, constitute 
anything in Mexico ? You were told yesterday, gentlemen, in very precise terms, the reason 
of our feebleness compared to our military power, which nothing resists. It comes from 
the fact that we rely on the support of a- detested party, composing only a minority of the 
nation. 

We have expended fifteen millions in feeding and clothing the Mexican army ; we have 
made our generals grasp the hands of Miramon and Marquez. Miramon and Marquez ! Do 
you know who they are — what they represent ? Here are the official documents, which tes- 
tify that, in 1857, Miramon and Marquez, repulsed from Vera Cruz, entered Tacubaya. 
There they ordered the massacre of the prisoners and of the sick who were in the hos- 
pitals. 

A voice. And of the surgeons. 

M. Jules Favre. They had them deliberately shot. Among the victims were seven 
physicians, one of them an Englishman. The seven physicians suffered the same fate as 
the rest. Here is the order to Marquez, signed by Miramon : 

" Your Excellency : This very evening, and under the strictest responsibility of your 
excellency, you will cause to be shot all the prisoners belonging to the class of officers, 
subaltern and superior, and you will render me an account of the number of those who 
shall have met this fate. God and law. 

"MIKAMON. 

" Mexico, April 14, 1859." 

And as among these prisoners there was an English physician, England protected ; and 
see in what energetic terms the first secretary of the department of foreign affairs in Eng- 
land expresses himself : 

' ' Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald has replied to me, that it was inopportune on my part to 
make complaints to the government of her Majesty, when he had in his hands a remon- 
strance, written by a merchant of the city of Mexico, (he was not pleased to tell me his 
name,) concerning Mr. John Duvall, a subject of her Britannic Majesty, who, in company 
with several others, foreigners and natives, had been assassinated in the cruellest, most 
inhuman, and most shameful manner, by order of the authorities of the city of Mexico, 
solely because they had found them in attendance on the wounded at Tacubaya, as it was 
their duty to be in their quality of surgeons. He added, that her Majesty's government 
has never known of acts so barbarous, so unworthy of a people pretending to pass for civil- 
ized, yet meriting the execration of the whole world. ' ' 

And it is through such scenes of blood, gentlemen, in the midst of such crimes, that 
Miramon attained the reins of power ! At that period Marquez was thrown into prison. 
Do you know why? Why ? Because he had carried off 600,000 francs belonging to the 
English legation. 

The first act of Miramon , on attaining power, was to set him at liberty. England pro- 
tested ; and see in what energetic terms : 

" The undersigned desires particularly to persuade his Excellency S. D. Theodosio Lares 
that, in conformity with the well-known sentiments of her Majesty's government, of which 
sentiments he is happy to be at this moment the interpreter, he will always be at his ex- 
cellency's disposal, to aid him to issue from the position in which the administration, of 
which he forms a part, is actually placed, in case that administration should present some 
plan of conciliation, to put an end to the civil war which desolates the republic in bo 



326 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

lamentable a manner, and which, if it continues, will imperil even its existence as a nation. 
But be would be wanting in his duty, and |p the assurance which he has given to his ex- 
cellency of the interest which the British government takes in the continuation of its ami- 
cable relations with Mexico, and in the honor and prosperity of the republic, if he neglected 
to call his excellency's attention to the rumor, mentioned in the papers, of the liberation 
of General Marquez, and of his being placed at the head of an important military com- 
mand. 

" Since the arrival of the undersigned at Mexico, that general has rendered himself 
guilty of several atrocious assassinations, among others, one of a British subject, (Dr. 
Duvall, one of the victims of Tacubaya,) who was seized at the moment that he fulfilled 
the duties of his profession as surgeon, duties considered sacred among all civilized nations, 
and he committed the still greater baseness of desiring to justify himself by calumniating 
his victim. 

" Some weeks afterwards he rendered himself again guilty of an assassination commit- 
ted on the person of an American citizen, put to death by his orders and without any 
form of trial. 

"Subsequently he seized the money confided to his charge for transportation, and 
aggravated his crime by alleging, in order to exculpate himself, that he had need of money 
to establish the government and the opinions which he pretended to sustain." 

These are the acts of which we have demanded an account from Juarez, and for this we 
have become the friends and allies of those who have dishonored themselves by commit- 
ting them. And you are astonished that resistance is offered to you when we place such 
men as this at the head of the Mexicans, who remember those abominable acts that deserve 
to be branded with infamy by all civilized nations 

No, no, we have deceived ourselves ; let us withdraw. Our brave soldiers, our officers, 
men of so much delicacy of feeling, and so full of honor, have no business in the midst of 
such vile and bloodthirsty adventurers, among whom they find themselves astray. 
[Vehement applause from some benches ; murmurs of disapprobation from others ] 

At Mexico, bow do they act? You know that General Forey was scarcely installed 
there when he issued that decree of sequestration which the government has been under 
the necessity of revoking ; but it was not possible for him to escape from the inflexible 
law of his situation. He had come to sustain those who, after having flattered him, were 
going to become his masters ; they tried at least to be so, and when the provisional govern- 
ment was established in the persons of General Almonte, General Salas, and the arch- 
bishop of Mexico, then the pretensions of the reactionists were clearly manifested ; they 
desired to go back upon the past. 

Ah, you believe that the Mexicans, whom you have gone to sustain, understand the 
generosity of France ? They have seen in her intervention the success of their schemes, 
of their guilty hopes ; they have wished to rescind the decree of Juarez and resume the 
property that had been sold Then the general ordered in a firm tone that justice should 
have its course, that no change should be made as to the execution of the obligations 
relative to the national property And what ensued? The provisional government 
resisted ; it resisted the hand that had raised it from the dust, that had made it what it is, 
that had invested it with its ephemeral power. 

General Bazaine spoke in a commanding tone ; he caused a communication to be inserted 
in the papers. Out of three members of the provisional government, two humbled them- 
selves ; as to the third, it was in his conscience that he obtained his strength. Far be it 
from me to reproach him for having entirely separated from the government ; but in the 
name of the dignity of France, I find my sensibilities very much hurt at seeiug one of 
those three heads turning against us and appearing to teach us an insolent lesson by 
placing beside the communication of General Bazaine the protest which I here quote. It 
was printed in the official journal. Assuredly, in France, such a thing would have been 
impossible. General Forey says, in his proclamation, that he brings to the Mexicans the 
benefit of warnings in matters regarding the press ; it is not certainly for that that we 
have made war. [Exclamations and laughter.] But, in spite of that legislation, after the 
communication of General Bazaine, Monseigneur, the archbishop of Mexico, had the following 
printed : 

"His illustrious excellency Monseigneur the archbishop, being opposed to hiking any part 
in the questions of the promises to pay, of the sales, and of the continuation of the construc- 
tions, and other pointscb cided in accordance with the sense of the two precediug communica- 
tions, published in the number of the Official Gazette to which this is a supplement, makes 
his dissent known to the public, in order to relieve himself from all responsibility on the 
subject." 

So he separates from us ; he declares that we have violated the divine law ; that as for 
him he cannot follow us in such a course. He has sent in his resignation, and the papers 
have reported that when mass was to Le heard by that army, which everywhere met with 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 327 

passive and due obedience, Monseigneur closed the doors of his church, and mass was 
heard only because cannons were planted to blow down the gates of the cathedral. 
[Various demonstrations and disturbances throughout the Chamber ] 

Such is the order which you have established in Mexico ; I advise you to congratulate 
yourselves on it. As for me, such order appears anarchy ; for you have placed in power 
those whom the national will had overthrown ; you combat those whom it sustains. Such 
is your real situation, and it is for this that I earnestly ask of you to put an end to it. 

The government tells us that it is going to reply. It has uttered one expression which 
I have received with real satisfaction : it has told you that there was no other solution 
than universal suffrage. 

Well, if the information given to us in the session of yesterday is correct, if in reality 
we occupy a territory representing a population of 5,500,000 inhabitants — that is the 
figure given ; it has been given officially, and we must keep it in mind in order that we 
may be able hereafter to regulate the truth of any assertions that may be made to us — if, 
I say, you have in your favor five millions five hundred thousand inhabitants, make them 
vote, and make them vote freely. The imperial order makes this a duty. It is in the 
name of national sovereignty that you have landed in Mexico. You have no intention of 
abjuring your principle ; it must be propagated. This principle you consider as the 
source of truth and right, and according as you proclaim it, you will not certainly stifle it 
under the heels of your victorious generals. Well, if you wish to have a vote, you have 
under your hand an electoral population sufficient for the vote ; make them vote. Only 
you are permitted — I am mistaken, you are ordered, while supervising the vote and con- 
forming yourselves to the lofty ideas of the Emperor, you are ordered not to influence that 
vote. You should leave the election to the Mexican nation itself. In this peaceful 
accomplishment of its most sacred rights, it is necessary that Mexico should make known 
its wish ; it is necessary that from its entrails, not torn by the knife of the sacrificers like 
those of the ancient victims, [noisy demonstrations,] but, on the contrary, rendered fertile 
by modern law, by the benefits of civilization, should issue at last that cry which will be 
the proclamation of its real sovereignty. Here is what the government ought to do. 

But I confess, gentlemen, in view of the resolutions which have been taken, in view of 
consummated facts and of those now being accomplished, I frankly acknowledge my fears 
lest the part which it seems determined to act should prove very difficult of execution ; 
and yet the unanimous sentiment of this assembly, the sentiment of all France, is that 
this occupation of Mexico should not be prolonged ; it is that, as far as the honor and 
interests of France allow, it should cease as soon as possible ; it is that our brave soldiers 
now in Mexico should soon again see their native land. Numerous considerations of 
various kinds have been laid before you to justify this opinion ; permit me, in conclusion, 
to produce only one. [Hear, hear ] 

Is it true that the lessons of history will be always lost, that they will teach nothing to 
those who, notwithstanding, ought constantly to diaw their inspirations from them? Is 
it a fact that in them we shall not find, by going back to the events of bygone years, 
salutary warnings by which we ought to profit? 

Gentlemen, fifty-six years ago, the chief of the powerful house which now reigns over 
France, to whom we cannot certainly refuse the possession either of genius or power, who 
had accustomed Europe to tremble before his slightest will, whose friendship was sought 
by the greatest potentates, that man one day had his Mexico also. He conceived the idea, 
in accordance with a policy which always appeared to me fatal, though however it has been 
celebrated as grand, of levelling the Pyrenees for the sake of a family alliance ; and it 
must be granted, gentlemen, there seemed to be special pretexts in that case, as in this one 
of Mexico. Wh m need I remind of the state of the Spanish nation at that time? Her 
monarchy was represented by an aged monarch almost imbecile ; beside him a dissolute 
and violent queen, a favorite justly unpopular on account of his haughtiness and his 
usurped power ; and to crown all, gentlemen, a son secretly conspiring, an impious son 
who had learned in the teachings of the Jesuits that all means are good when they can 
conduce to success. What did the Emperor do ? The Emperor wished to regenerate Spain. 
He constituted himself the sovereign judge of her chiefs, summoned them before him at 
Bayonne, and by a stroke of his hand dashed the crown from the head of the king. He 
took it up to give it to his brother. The latter passed the Pyrenees. Were there ovations 
wanting to him ? Was not he. also, able to gather up crowns of flowers ? Did not 
courtiers throng around the triumphal car of the new king ? You have been told with 
reason, the race of courtiers is imperishable. After success came the conflict ; it lasted 
five years, a heroic conflict, signalized by victories that eminently displayed the valor of 
our soldiers ; a sterile conflict, however, for their blood could never cause the tree to grow 
whose roots they had to fertilize on the soil of Spain. And then one day the storm 
lowered from the north ; the tempest burst in its fury ; and then the great captain saw 
with anguish his glorious legions sacrificed for an interest which was not a French interest, 



328 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

and the clash of arms on many a battle-field [louder, we cannot hear] resounded a grand 
lesson to the world. 

Well, gentlemen, can we say, at the present time, that all is calm, that all is security 
around us? On casting our eyes around us, are we not struck, as the honorable M. Thiers 
said yesterday for Mexico, with the small number of those who declare themselves our 
friends ? Ah ! when we find before us these causes of distrust, we can all declare, with 
legitimate pride, they do not frighten us ; for if we cau be divided when there is question 
of internal affairs, if we cry out for liberty with earnestness, if you sometimes refuse it to 
us, [cries of disapprobation,] when there is need of making headway against Europe we are 
all united, and all united we are invincible. [Good, good] But do you know on what 
condition ? On condition that we always have justice on our side, and that it be not pos- 
sible some day, as was done in 1813, to arouse against us the feelings of the nations, by 
their being told that we have violated their rights, falsified the promises of France, and 
oppressed their liberty. [Murmurs from some benches; applause around the speaker.] 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, March 8, 1864. 

Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 25th of February, 
accompanied by translations into English of the discourses pronounced in the 
French Chambers on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of January last, concerning 
Mexican affairs. 

Thanking you for your courteous attention, I avail myself of the opportunity 
to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

SeSor Matias Romero, &fc., Sp., Sfc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

|" Translation.} 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, February 26, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to enclose to you, for the information of the 
government of the United States, copies in English of some of the protests made 
by the authorities and citizens of the Mexican republic against the intervention 
which the Emperor of the French has been engaged in carrying through in my 
country. 

I much regret that I have not in my possession all the protests of this kind 
which it would be fitting to submit to the consideration of the civilized world, 
that it might know without difficulty on which side the national will really lies 
upon the question now debated in Mexico. However, such as I have been able to 
collect, and which I send enclosed, are, in my opinion, sufficient to place beyond 
all doubt the fact that while the French and their agents have occasion for all 
the pressure of their bayonets to obtain in places occupied by their forces some 
acts of adhesion, signed by persons unknown, and often full of fictitious names, 
the same towns, when freed from military pressure, expressed their will against 
intervention, through the medium of the most distinguished citizens among the 
local authorities, freely and popularly chosen, who represented faithfully, there- 
fore, the will of their constituents, and are again doing the same thing the instant 
they see themselves free from the foreign invaders. It is notorious that many 
of the protests against intervention have been made in places in which, at the 
time, there was no armed force of the national government. They were, there- 
fore, the free expression of the will of those who signed them, and there cannot 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 329 

be the slightest suspicion that they could have been dictated by fear or violence, 
which there was no means of bringing into play. 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my very 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc., 8fc., fyc. 



Manuel Doblado, governor of the state of Guanajuato, to its inhabitants. 

Guanajuato, July 28, 1863. 

Fellow-Citizens: The honorable congress of the state, upon terminating its legislative 
labors, has delegated to me the exercise of its powers, amplifying the extraordinary facili- 
ties with which it had before invested me. 

This new testimony of confidence imposes upon me the duty of addressing you, in order 
to make known to you the use that I propose to make of the authority which has been 
deposited in my person. 

The events which have recently occurred in the city of Mexico have placed the foreign 
question in its true light, and presented it with a precision and an exactitude which re- 
moves all possibility of error. These events reveal nothing less than the deliberate inten- 
tion of converting the republic of Mexico into a colony of France. 

The theatrical farce by which it has been sought to divide and to distract public opinion 
has no other object than to place the country, by means of certain artificial transitions, 
under the domination of the French arms. 

In all this there is only the good faith that a conquered people may hope to receive from 
their conqueror. 

The invading general has affected to believe that the military question was concluded, 
when he yet has the intimate conviction that it has only commenced. 

No one now is ignorant of the deplorable causes which contributed to bring about the 
disasters which occuired to the armies of the east and of the centre. 

The invading general also knows them, and he knows that without the aid of those 
causes he would not to-day be in Mexico. 

The military question begins now on the day when the country raised the flag of resist- 
ance. The solution of this question is yet known only to Providence. He will award to 
each that which is his just due. 

The political question is a question of right, and on this field Mexico is omnipotent. 

Nationality is the life of a people. The Mexicans have inherited independence from 
their fathers. They achieved that independence by virtue of their courage and their sacri- 
fices, not by intrigue ; nor did they purchase it with corrupt gold. 

The right which exists on our side is evident ; it is incontrovertible, unprescriptible. It 
is the right which England has, and Spain and France, under their respective nationalities ; 
and to place this right in doubt is to reject all public law, is to imperil the very existence 
of nations as independent states, to attack at its very base the principle of natural right, 
and to introduce chaos into established international relations. 

Force is not right. It is necessary to repeat this principle a thousand times, however 
trite it may seem. Force disposed, many years ago, of Poland, but the rights of the Poles 
still exist, and only burst forth the more brilliantly each time the sacred fire of insurrec- 
tion appears. 

The Emperor Napoleon has had the power to invade Mexico, but he has no right to con- 
vert it into a colony of France. It has been attempted to found a right upon the unhappy 
condition of the republic, and upon its continual revolutions. 

But this is only the sophistry of bad faith, in which even its authors do not believe. It 
is true that we have committed many errors, and that all parties, in attempting to put in . 
practice their respective theories, have failed, devoured by the revolutionary spirit. But 
only the Mexicans have a right to complain of these evils The right to reproach is ex- 
clusively our own. Foreigners have no right to take cognizance of our domestic dissen- 
sions, and still less to bring charges against us for acts done in the exercise of our national 
sovereignty. 

The invader well knows these truths, and it is for this reason that each step he takes in 
the country he repeats the deceitful watchword of his designs : " We do not come to impose 
a government upon Mexico ; we come to protect the free choice of that the Mexicans wish 
to give themselves." This hypocritical pretence does not merit refutation ; it has already 
been set aside by the nation tn masse, when it laughed with scorn at the news of the mon- 
archy of Maximilian. 



330 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The good sense of the inhabitants of the country has comprehended that there cannot 
be freedom where there is compulsion ; that the French army is not a protector, but a 
usurper ; that these phrases with which it is sought to deceive the people are only the set 
phrases which conquerors in all times have us d with lying tongues ; diplomatic expedients, 
invented in order to paralyze resistance ; involuntary confessions, but very significant of 
our right to freely govern ourselves without the intervention of any foreign influence 
whatever. 

Presented thus the political question, and being clear as the light of the noonday sun 
the right of Mexico not to admit the protection offered to her at the point of French bayo- 
nets, the course which should be followed by all Mexicans is plainly marked out. It is to 
fight to the last against the invaders ; to exhaust to the uttermost every resource of the 
country in order to make the war successful ; to reject all thought of compromise as an 
impossible means when treating of the independence and sovereignty of the nation, which, 
from their very nature, are indivisible and inalienable, and to die if it is necessary, but 
with the consciousness that the honor of Mexico has been saved. 

This is the course which the government of Guanajuato will pursue in order to corre- 
spond to the confidence which the representatives of the people have manifested in the 
person who exercises its functions. 

For an enterprise so grand and so holy no co-operation should be refused — no individual 
should be rejected. Under the flas* of independence, for the first time thrown to the breeze 
by the venerable curate Miguel Hidalgo, all political parties have a place, for under its 
shadow there is harm only to traitors. To-day I call upon all the inhabitants of the state, 
whether conservative, moderados, or liberals, to lend their services, each one in the sphere 
which may be possible, to the cause of independence. To-day disappear with political 
hatreds all the unhappy denominations born of civil war. In the bloody struggle upon 
which we have now to enter there are only two distinctions which can henceforth be 
known — Mexicans or Frenchmen and traitors; invaders or invaded ; freemen or slaves. 
It is not a sense of peril which counsels me to this invocation to fraternity. During the 
three years of my administration, tolerance has been a practical truth in the state of 
Guanajuato, where the same respect and the same guarantees have been enjoyed by men of 
all shades of opinions and from all the states. If it were not unworthy of a government 
to pronounce its own panegyric, I could recount to you a thousand acts which testify that 
the idea of a universal fusion has formed one of the cardinal bases of my administration. 

Nor is it fear of the great power of the French empire which incites me to make this 
call for reconciliation. The power of France is great. This incontestable fact will later 
form our glory. 

But the question is not now which of the two nations has the most power, but which of 
the two has justice on its side. Possessing the right, we have the obligation to defend it, 
even when all the physical conditions of war are unfavorable to us. 

What would have become of Spain in 1808 if she had stopped to consider the number 
and the strength of the French armies which had been perfidiously introduced into her 
principal cities and fortresses before she had commenced her glorious uprising ? 

What would Mexico now be if the father of our independence had stopped to calculate 
the immense resources of the crown of Spain, and the poverty with which he was sur- 
rounded at the moment when he proclaimed our emancipation ? 

I am very far from feeling that spirit of boastful arrogance which would preannounce 
triumphs and enumerate imaginary forces. Our weakness is a fact ; it is a fact which itself 
has led to the invasion. But our duty is to defend ourselves, and when a duty is to be 
complied with we do not count the number of our adversaries, nor are we deterred by 
obstacles. We cannot lose our indepcudeuce with honor without first having defended it 
with arms to the last extremity. 

Then, and only then, shall we have a right to the consideration of the world ; then, and 
only then, shall we transmit to our sons the right of rebellion against their oppressors 
whenever they shall have the power to rise ; and only thus can we wash away with our 
blood the stain which has been thrown upon the flag of the nation by those few degraded 
Mexicans who, through the asperity of parties, through hunger, or from motives the most 
vile, have lent themselves to serve as the instruments of the invader, and have filled posi- 
tions which reveal the lowest grade of abjectness. 

Guauajuateneses, Providence has destined us to live in an epoch of trial. 

Let us rise to the height of the situation. 

Be great in the day of the struggle, as our domestic discords have made us before appear 
weak. Let us demonstrate to our enemies that we are not unworthy of forming an inde- 
pendent nation. 

Let us make them feel the difference between this faction of beggars, political chevaliers 
d'indwdrie, who have asked the aid of the Emperor, and the immense majority of the nation 
with whom the love of nationality domiuates as a vigorous aud puissaut passion, who 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 331 

possess that noble pride which is inspired by patriotism, and who have a sacred and inex- 
tinguishable attachment for the preservation of our independence. 

The lash, the pillory, and secret executions already cause the hand of the conqueror to 
be felt in the city of Mexico. 

Who among us has not felt his brow redden with shame on hearing of this infamous 
treatment applied to Mexican citizens ? 

Fellow-citizens, the conqueror comes boasting that his steps will be marked by peace, by- 
security, and by abundance. Let us wait a little, and our deceived brothers will be restored 
to themselves when they see that all these promises are deceitful, that they are only the 
delusive utterances of an accomplished trickster. 

Our destiny is war. Let us enter, then, upon the struggle with the dignity of freemen, 
with the courage of independent Mexicans, and with faith in God, who will never abandon 
the cause of justice. 

The future is dark, because it is a future of sacrifices ; but the reward is imperishable ; it 
is the glory of Hidalgo and of Iturbide. 

Posterity will judge us all ; and when this epoch of passions and of hatreds shall have 
passed away, it will honor with posthumous impartiality these Mexicans who have died 
defending the independence of their country, and the traitors who have cowardly sought 
to deliver it over to the French covered with opprobrium and with infamy. 

Viva la independencia ! Viva la republica ! Viva el gobierno constitucional Mexicano ! 

MANUEL DOBLADO. 



PROCLAMATION. 



Citizen Manuel Doblado, constitutional governor of the State of Guanajuato, to its inhabitants : 

Guanajuatbneses : The French and the traitors are already knocking at the gates of the 
State. I return, therefore, to take charge of its government, in order to fulfil my duty by 
defending it, and am resolved to pursue the destiny which Providence may present to me 
in the place where the popular will has located me. 

The Frenchman proceeds, using advantageously our political antipathies, and deceiving 
at once progressionists and retrogressionists, in order to build up a governing power purely 
French on the ruin and discredit of both. 

Neither the one nor the other will be persuaded of this truth, although both have been 
cruelly disappointed. Time alone, and the falsity of the invader's promises, evidenced by 
want of fulfilment, will cause the deluded to retrace their steps when it may be, perhaps, 
too late to remedy the evil. 

The loyal Mexicans, who see clearly the object at which the conqueror aims, have marked 
out a path in which there can be no vacillation, and therefore pursue it with a firm step 
and calm conscience. 

All are resolved to fight incessantly until they fall or save independence and the consti- 
tutional government of the republic. They know all the disadvantages of the situation 
and the resources of the enemy, but they comprehend that when the annihilation of a 
nation is in question, weakness is no excuse, because duty is satisfied only when all that 
could be has been done. 

The insurrection is now an undeniable fact. Wherever there are Frenchmen and traitors 
there are champions of independence. They are fighting at one and the same moment 
from Vera Cruz to Queretaro, and in the very gutters of the city of Mexico ; the upheaving 
of insurgents reminds the incredulous that the country is occupied militarily, but not con- 
quered. The pacification of the country under the empire of the French flag is impossible. 

The invasion will cause the state countless losses, for which neither the invaders nor false 
Mexicans who have called them will be responsible. The government of the state has 
maintained order, peace, and individual guarantees from its establishment, in the year 
1860, until now, notwithstanding that it has found itself surrounded on all sides by ele- 
ments of destruction. If, hereafter, it should find itself compelled to abandon that path 
and enter that of reprisals and coercive measures, let the blame rest on the traitors, who, 
to satisfy petty ambition and wretched passions, have brought upon their country the 
scourge of foreign war. Upon them let the tremendous responsibility of whatever may 
happen fall. 

Fellow-citizens, the hour of struggle approaches ; the time of trial has arrived. In the 
pages of modern history there is no glory comparable with that which Spain and Kussia 
acquired when, at the beginning of this century, they opposed, in an insurrection, an in- 
destructible wall to Napoleon I. Both appeared to succumb speedily to the immense power 
of the modern Artaxerxes ; but the people arose, and those two powers overturned him 
who had won the prestige of invincible. v 



332 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Let us imitate the heroic example of those great nations, nor allow the power and num- 
ber of our enemies to affright us. It may well be that the chances of war may be adverse 
to us at first ; but fortune will come at length to crown our constancy. The question is 
not between Mexico and France exclusively. There are interests and considerations of a 
high order, which will be developed in time, when Mexico, sustaining with courage and 
honor the unequal struggle, will prove to the world that she is perfectly worthy to form by 
herself a sovereign and independent nation. 

Viva la independencia ! &c, &c. 

MANUEL DOBLADO. 

Guanajuato, November 9, 1863. 



PROTEST OF THE CONGRESS OF SONORA AGAINST FOREIGN INTERVENTION. 

The protest which was made and signed at San Luis Potosi, on the 22d of July of the 
present year, by the permanent deputation of the congress of the Union, in the name of that 
sovereign body, against all acts that have taken place, or may occur hereafter, under the 
power or influence of French intervention, being well known throughout the republic as 
well as abroad, and the political importance of the same being of such a nature that it 
makes it useless to show forth the legitimate considerations which gave rise to it, express- 
ing with as much truth as energy the grievances and attempts which the present govern- 
ment of France has committed, and contiues to commit, against the most sacred rights of 
the nation, allied with Mexican traitors, and violating all principles of international law, 
trampling under foot and scorning the individuality of Mexico as a sovereign nation, and, 
without any more right than that of brutal force, scandalizing the whole civilized world, 
pretends to arrogate to herself the authority to impose upon us the form of government 
■which ought to rule over us and the administration we should adopt, and leaving nothing 
new to add to that historical monument that testifies so amply the will and sentiments of 
the nation, manifested by the legitimate organ of its representatives, and fixes the impre- 
scriptible rights of the Mexican nation, sustaining its autonomy, rights that can never be 
ceded to a foreign power by a revengeful faction of fanactics and traitors. 

Therefore the constitutional congress of the free and sovereign state of Sonora, faithful 
interpreter and legitimate representative of the people of the same, whose sentiments of 
patriotism and zeal for its independence are so well known, declares : that it makes the pro- 
test made and signed by the permanent deputation of the sovereign congress of the United 
Mexican States, in the city of San Luis Potosi, on the 22d of July, 1863, its own, as also 
any former acts and protests ; that it will always consider as null and vexatious to the 
sovereignty of the nation and to that of the state all and every act that may have for its 
origin the French intervention in any of the political affairs of the Mexican republic, and 
that it disowns and will repel as usurper any foreign power, as well as any other created in 
the country which does not emanate from the legitimate federal constitution which the na- 
tion gave freely to itself on the 5th of February, 1857. 

Hall of Sessions of the Congress of Sonora at Ures, on the 21st of October, 1863. 

DOMINGO ELIAS, Sen. 

PASCUAL ELIAS, Jun. 

JESUS GUIJADA. 

RAMON MARTINEZ. 

FRANCISCO MORENA BUELNA. 

NIEVES E. ACOSTA, Deputy Secretary. 

JOSE M REDONDO, Deputy Secretary. 



[Annexed to Mr. Romero's letter of February 26, 1864.] 

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS AND GOVERNMENT. 

Second class — seal 5th — half a dollar. For the term of two years included in the years 
1858 and 1859. — General bureau for the administration of the revenue from stamped pa- 
per. — Established for the years 1862 and 1863, conformably to the supreme order of March 
16, 1861. 

MANUEL GOMEZ, R. P. S., 
Principal Bureau of Stamped Paper, Sonora. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 333 

Citizen-Governor of the State : The undersigned, who compose the patriotic association 
formed in this city under the title of " Independence Club, Liberty or Death," have re- 
solved to address ourselves to the enlightened chief magistrate of the republic, intrusted 
with the defence of its independence, and invested with full and complete powers by the 
national legislature, and to manifest to him, in the most solemn manner, as I have the 
honor to do through the worthy mediation of this government, our firm and decided reso- 
lution to repel with profound hatred and eternal malediction, by all the means in our power, 
and in every possible way becoming us as true patriots, every interventionary pretension 
of the French invaders, manifesting, at the same time, the closest and most sincere adhe- 
rence to the wise institutions by which we are governed, and which the nation has estab- 
lished for itself through the instrumentality of its legitimate representatives and in the ex- 
ercise of its indisputable power and sovereignty, laid down in the great constitutional 
charter of 1857 and in the laws of reform. 

We likewise declare, as our final resolve, that, being deeply penetrated with patriotic 
sentiments, such as ought to animate every loyal Mexican, we are firmly resolved to co- 
operate with all our strength in the grand work of the national defence, and to shed our 
blood and that of our sons for the liberty and independence of our fatherland, most un- 
justly and wickedly threatened with destruction by the invading hosts of the most ambi- 
tious tyrant of Europe, the degenerate colossus of our age, the hated despot, the associate 
of bandits and traitors, the unprincipled Napoleon III. 

Be pleased, citizen-governor, to transmit these short but truthful manifestations of our 
feelings to the supreme magistrate of the nation, which we are ready to reduce to practice 
at whatever cost. 

Alamos, July 16, 1863. 

A. ALMADA, President. 

VICTORIANO ORTIZ Y RODRIGUEZ, Vice-President. 

LEOPOLDO GIL SAMANIEGO, Secretary. 

JUAN J. MENDOZA, Secretary. 

Inocencio Garcia, Aurelio Garcia, Laureano Jelin,Exiquio Ordefian, Francisco Miranda, Luis 
Teyechea, Juan Lopez, Saturnino Alvarez, Jose Maria Flores, Priciliano Orduno, Eduardo 
Retes, Luis Acosta, Jesus Camargo, Juan J. Zarate, Severiano Avilez, Diego Avilez, Jesus 
Ramirez, Leocadio Miranda, Juan J. Estrada, Ramon Ibarra, Manuel Amarillos, Antonio 
Gamez, E. Baldenegro, Jesus Almada, Juan S. Moreno, Rosalino Corral y S. Miguel Ser- 
rano, Cecilio Ocen. To be a free Mexican or perish : Carlos C. Avilez, Macario Escalante, 
Luis Acuria, R. J. Rodriguez, Jesus S. Campos, Juan Marquez, Jose Maria Trevina y Al- 
varez. Signed for the following citizens, by their request : Jose Maria Valenzuela, Este- 
van Valenzuela, Regiro Salas, Calixto Hernandez, Juan Benitez, Francisco Lopez, Satur- 
nino Corrales, Juan Alvarez, Ignacio Beltran, Jesus Pinuela, Porfirio Balderrama, Fulgencio 
Rojo, Jesus Gastelo, Adolfo Tesiseco, Miguel Salas, Ignacio Rodriguez, Concepcion Cam- 
pay, Higineo Esqueo, Bernardo Camargo, Tranquilino Gutierrez, Santiago Navarro, and 
Manuel Campos, Leopoldo G. Samaniego, Isidoro Sonsa. For Nepomuceno Delgado, 
Antonio Navarro, Maximo Urias, Nemecio Alarcon, and Francisco Valenzuela, Leopoldo 
G. Samaniego, Jesus Maria Sanchez, Santiago Navarro, Emeterio R. Ortiz. For Liato 
Dominguez and Benigno Valenzuela, Victoriano Ortiz y Rodriguez, Rafael Acuria, Gua- 
dalupe Mendoza, Jose Maria Retes, Jesus 0. Almada, Antonio Miranda, Manuel Fera, 
Juan J. Marquez, Florencio Cevallos, Francisco A. Cevallos. For Candido Garcia, Gua- 
dalupe Mendoza. For the citizens, Francisco Ruiz, Ramon Urbalejo, Alejandro Barreras, 
Manuel Valdez, Panfilo Lugo, and Basilio Valdez, Guadupe Mendoza. For Ramon Na- 
jarrati, Leopoldo G. Samaniego, Santos Delgado. For Manuel Rodriguez, V. Ortiz y 
Rodriguez. For Tiburcio Valdez, Leopoldo G. Samaniego, Carlos Cevallos, Estevan Ortiz. 
For Eulalio Morales, Leopoldo G. Samaniego, Ramon Jacome, Jesus Cevallos, Manuel 
Salazar, Antonio Almada, Francisco Salido. For Agustin Gamez, Jose' Almada, Lorenzo 
Ortiz, Juan de D. Tavela, J. Antonio G. Samaniego, Salvador Compay, Luis G. Parada. 
For Porfirio Bostillos, Leopoldo G. Samaniego. For Rosendo Mendivil, Leopoldo G. Sam- 
aniego. 

This is a true copy of the original which remains in the archives of the association. 

V. ORTIZ Y RODRIGUEZ, Vice-President. 

JUAN J. MENDOZA, Secretary. 

LEOPOLDO G. SAMANIEGO, Secretary. 
Alamos, July 17, 1863. 



334 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

State of Sonora, 
Office of the Prefe.t of the district of Alamos. 

VINCENTE OKTIZ, PREFECT OF THE DISTRICT OF ALAMOS. 

I certify that the preceding signatures are those used by the individuals who have sub- 
scribed their names in all their affairs and business transactions, public as well as private, 
and therefore admitted as legal testimony in court and out of court with the credit which 
they deserve. 

And at the request of these citizens, above mentioned, I issue these presents at Alamos, 
July 17, 1863, and I authorize and seal them according to law. 

YINCENTE ORTIZ. 

A true copy. — San Luis Potosi, August 28, 1863. 

JUAN DE D. ARIAS. 



Office of the Secretary of the Congress of the Union, 

Permanent Committee, Board of Primary Instruction of Chihuahua. 
The board of instruction of this capital, deeply affected by the recent events that have 
transpired at the city of Zaragoza, and by the occupation of the city of Mexico by the French 
invaders, has deemed it proper to approve the protest which I have the honor to transmit 
to you, in order that you may be pleased to lay it before the permanent committee of the 
sovereign Congress of the Union. 

In compliance with the wishes of the board, I have the honor to offer you the testimony 
of my profound respect and sincere attachment. 

Independence and liberty! — Chihuahua, July 29, 1863. 

J. M. G. DEL CAMPO, President, [seal.] 
FRANCISCO ESPINOSA, Secretary, [seal ] 
The Secretaries of the Permanent Committee of Congress. 



The Beard of Primary Instruction of Chihuahua to the Governor of the State : 

Since the occupation of the heroic city of Zaragoza, and of the capital of Mexico, by the 
invading army of Napoleon IU, a triumph not due to the power of its arms — resisted always 
and with courage by the valiant defenders of our independence — but to accidental circum- 
stances of war or of necessity, and of regard for the great end of never compromising 
with the perfidious and hypocritical pretensions of the ambitious tyrant of France, and of 
maintaining, at all hazards, the sovereignty and liberty of our country ; and since, from 
the fact of finding himself in the city of Mexico, followed by a disgusting crowd of infamous 
traitors, General Forey considers his military operations as terminated, believiDg himself 
already the conqueror of the nation ; considers likewise as having arrived the moment for 
initiating the work of the intervention in the political reorganization of the country ; has 
commenced to dictate laws, and has instituted a ridiculous government, counterfeiting the 
national will, which can never be repiesented by the combination of traitors resident in 
Mexico, who are the only persons that could second the intentions of General Forey, by 
this means entirely ignoring the existence of the constitutional government established by 
the free and spontaneous vote of the nation, which, by having its residence at present 
at San Luis Potosi, has thereby neither lost its legitimacy nor abdicated its authority, 
nor ceased to be obeyed and respected by the states ; it is necessary that the voice of 
the country should be raised on every side, and should reach the ears of Forey, and even 
those of the despot of France, protesting before the world against their wicked and unjust 
pretensions to interfere in the politics of our republic, or to subject it to their domination ; 
it is necessary to give them to understand, in the most energetic and conclusive manner, 
that, if our arms succumb, our wills are still repugnant and resist all extraneous interfer- 
ence, be it what it may, and whatever be the pretext or motive which it adduces in its 
justification ; it is necessary that these gunpowder civilizers should know that, if sometimes 
the brutal force of arms triumphs for a period over reason and justice, the national senti- 
ment of a free people is irresistible and its will most potent, invincible to all attacks, and 
unconquerable by any human power. It is necessary that all the states, all the peoples, all 
the authorities and corporations, and every Mexican that is not a traitor, should solemnly 
declare that they detest the French intervention with all their heart, as well as the inter- 
ference of any other foreign nation ; that they will never recognize nor acknowledge any 
other government than that which actually rules the nation, established in conformity with 
the constitution of 1857 ; that they consider as a mere nullity and usurpation whatever 
shadow of a government General Forey may establish in the city of Mexico, or whatever 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 335 

one may be established under the protection of the French arms ; that they will also neither 
accept nor consider as legal any treaty that may be made with the invader, with the sacri- 
fice of the national honor, or with the loss or alienation of any part of the Mexican terri- 
tory. 

These, citizen-governor, are the patriotic sentiments and the convictions of the members 
of the board of primary instruction, and in accordance with them they make the following 
declaration : 

1. The members composing the board of primary instruction, individually and collec- 
tively, protest, in the most solemn manner, against the intervention of France, or of any 
other foreign nation whatever, and place at the disposal of the government of the state 
their persons and their fortunes, in order that the government may employ them in the 
defence of the national independence threatened by Napoleon III. 

2. They consider as a nullity and a mockery the government established in the city of 
Mexico by General Forey or under the influence of his bayonets ; and they protest against 
all the provisions and decrees that it may dictate or may have already dictated. 

3. They will recognize no other government than that established in conformity 
with the constitution of 1857, nor will they obey any other laws or any other authority 
than those derived from that only legitimate code of the nation. 

4. They protest against any treaty whatever that, by any unforeseen contingency, may 
come to be made with the invader, to the detriment of the honor of the nation, or the 
alienation of any part of its territory. 

JOSE MARIA GOMEZ DEL CAMPO, President. 
JOSE MARIA MARI, Vice-President. 

Jose Maria Porras, Tomas Irigoyen, Adolfo Viard, Mariana Saenz, syndic ; Roque Jacinto 
Moron, honorary member ; Jose M. Telles, honorary member ; Jose Cordero, Tomas Cor- 
dero Zuza, Eduardo Urueta, Bernardo Revilla, Jos6 M. Jaurrieta, Genaro Artalejo, Fran- 
cisco Nieto, Pablo Porras ; Jose Rodrigo Garcia, honorary member ; Laureano Castaneda, 
Andres Vidalva, Joaquin Campa ; Victor de la Garza, honorary member ; Joaquin Villalva, 
honorary member ; Jesus Muhoz, honorary member. 

FRANCISCO ESPINOSA, Secretary. 
Chihuahua, July 17, 1863. 

This is a true copy of the original. — Chihuahua, July 30, 1863. 

J M. G. DEL CAMPO, President, [seal.] 
FRANCISCO ESPINOSA, Secretary, [seal.] 

A true copy. — San Luis Potosi, August 21, 1863. Signed, on account of the illness of 
the official superior, by 

R. J. ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS. 



Office of the Secretary of State and of the Bureau of Finance and Public Credit. 

Frontier Custom-House of the Presidio del Norte. 
The subscriber, administrator of the frontier custom-house of the Presidio del Norte, in Chi- 
huahua, in union with the other employes of that office, declares in his name and in theirs 
that they comply with their duty as Mexicans in manifesting to the supreme general gov- 
ernment of the nation, in which they recognize its legality as the only and true expression 
of the will of the people of the republic, that they repel, with the dignity becoming to 
every free and truly patriotic man, the privilege which any nation whatever may pretend 
to arrogate to itself, be its category what it may, to mingle or interfere in the free exercise 
which our nation possesses of the right to regulate itself in the manner that it thinks most 
suitable ; that for this reason they see the present intervention with indignation, and 
protest — 

1. Against the wicked and unjust aggression which the present Emperor of the French, 
Napoleon III, has made and continues to make, under pretext of interfering in our internal 
affairs. 

2. Against all and every one of the acts that emanate from the so-called government of 
the capital, for the reason that it is illegitimate, inasmuch as it has been established by the 
invader, and formed among others of the traitors who have most distinguished themselves, 
and who have given most cause to be hated from the beginning of our glorious conflict 
with the French. 



336 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

3. Against the establishment of any other system of government than the constitutional 
republican system which now governs us, or that which the nation may choose to adopt 
for itself freely and spontaneously without any sort of intervention by any foreign power 
whatever, and principally without that of the present invaders. 

They protest, finally, that they will not recognize nor respect any other orders than those 
issued by the supreme government of the nation, now resident in the capital of San Luis 
Potosi, and by the authorities, functionaries, and agents recognized by the same supreme 
government. 

Frontier Custom-house of the Presidio del Norte, in Chihuahua, August 3, 1863. 

JUAN MUNOZ. 
FRANCISCO ESPENOSA. 
JUAN JOSE" ESCUDERO. 
A true copy : 

J. N. GAMBA. 



The Corporation of Guadalajara to the Government and People of the State : 

The invaders have planted their foul footsteps on the ruins of the heroic city of Z^ragoza. 
The decisive moment has eome ; the moment in which we should show to the world our 
country in all her splendor, in all her majesty. Because she is no longer in the midst of 
triumphs, which oftentimes are solely due to the caprice of fortune, she is not, therefore, 
in anxiety. It is not in prosperity, nor in the peaceful and undisturbed enjoyment of their 
institutions and of the public will, that peoples and governments prove their power and 
their virtues, and achieve their greatest conquests of glory and of progress, but in suffering 
and in conflict with formidable enemies. The loss of the first city that resisted the assault of 
the French hosts is converted into an incalculable augmentation of our physical and moral 
strength. The hope has disappeared with which our enemies, repulsed in their first 
attempts, returned to their ships, and they have become convinced of their impotence. The 
sole result has been that the barrier banks of the channel have been burst, in which rolled 
the terrible wrath of a valiant and high-spirited nation, assaulted by an unjust and treacher- 
ous aggressor. The last cannon discharged on those walls, purpled with the blood of our 
brothers, is the signal of imminent danger, is the signal for the greatest and most san- 
guinary combat registered in the history of the human race. It is a universal and neces- 
sary law that from struggle results progress. Tyrants, always conquered in the arena of 
discussion, have recourse in their spite and rage to the power of arms. But death does not 
enslave, nor do the dungeons enslave in which thought is immured, nor the gag with which 
the voice of right and reason is stifled, nor the chains that are placed on the heroes who 
prefer to die rather than be conquered. Only the humiliation and homage of the will before 
brute force enslave ; only treason and cowardice enslave. The final triumph of our arms 
is secure, because we not only love liberty and have a right to its enjoyment, but also know 
how to defend it. 

This is the moment to unveil all traitors ; and such are not only those who have enlisted 
in the ranks of the invaders, but likewise those who respond with cowardly silence to the 
call of their country. The uprising of a people to save their independence sanctifies the 
fury of their vengeance, destroys or roots up whatever obstacle it encounters in its way, 
and punishes selfishness and fear as crimes ; for selfishness and fear are marks of treason, 
that therefore place men outside of the pale of the law. 

The corporation urges the government, by every means in its power, to find out clearly 
the distinction between true Mexicans and traitors, to the end that these latter should be 
consigned to capital punishment, without hope of pardon, and that they should be amen- 
able to such punishment for no other cause proved against them than their refusal to defend 
their country, or their entertaining any kind of relation whatever, direct or indirect, with 
its em mies : because this corporation, in the fulness of its conscientious persuasion, believes 
that, if it were practicable to penetrate the hidden thoughts of man, even the crime of 
thinking against the sacred rights of one's country ought to be punished with death. The 
corporation, likewise, urges the government to allow no other human consideration to be 
preferred in its mind to whatever in any way concerns the defence of our independence, and 
to impress on the minds of those who now have the glory of being Mexicans the immense 
responsibility which that character of itself imposes on them, and the duty under which 
they are to suppress in their hearts all affection and every obligation which cools or com- 
bats in them the sentiment of nationality. This now demands of them the sacrifice of their 
lives and of their fortunes ; and undoubtedly they will offer both most willingly. Few, 
indeed, will those be from whom it will be necessary to take them by compulsion, and still 
fewer those who will commit the opprobrious crime of consenting to live beneath the 
French flag. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 337 

Let eveiy sword be unsheathed now; let us hear no words but those of war and ven- 
geance ; in our lost cities let the invader receive only solitude and the silence of the tombs, 
and the devastation of our fields and the conflagration of our homes ; let us imitate and 
excel all the free nations of the earth, as those who, like the invincible sons of Saguntum 
and Numantia, consigned themselves to the flames rather than submit to their enemies, 
or those who, like the defenders of Nasactum, slew their wives and children and then killed 
themselves, in order not to become slaves to the conqueror. The victory shall be ours ; 
but if the supreme designs of Providence deny us that, let us not forget that liberty is 
found not only in victory, but also in death. 

FELIX BARRON, President. 

OGTAVIANO CEVALLOS. 

JOSE MARIA BRAMBILA. 

JULIO G. PENA. 

MARTIN MUNlZ. 

ALBINO DEL MORAL. 

JUAN HIJAR Y HARO. 

SILVERIO ALEMAN. 

CALIXTO OROSCO. 

MANUEL DE ZELAYETA, Syndic. 

AURELIO HERMOSO, Syndic. 

IRENEO PAZ, Syndic. 

JUSTO V. TAGLE, Secretary. 

AUGUSTIN QUEVEDO, Assistant Secretary. 



Ignacio 0. Echeverria, colonel of infantry in the regular army and mnjor general of the division of 

Jalhco, to his fellow-citizens. 

Guadalajara, May 27, 1863. 

Fellow-Citizens : A disaster sufficiently common in war has caused the heroic city of 
Zaragoza to fall into the power of the French, the vanguard of our valiant army being 
destroyed. In the height of their pride, perhaps the French cut-throats will think that 
the war is finished, and that the sons of Mexico will abase their heads before their vile 
bayonets. God forbid, fellow-citizens, that it should be so. In these final moments it 
will be that the whole world shall see what a free people are, who desire to be so, and who 
know how to defend their sacred rights of independence. Yes, men of Jalisco, the 
sovereign day of trial has come to decide once forever the fate of the whole American 
continent, and the contest begins, the greatest, the most heroic, and the most sanguinary 
of contests. The perishable ramparts of a fortification may be overthrown and laid in 
ruins by the invading artillery ; but those ramparts shall never be overthrown that are 
formed by the breasts of Mexico's brave sons, if, all united, we march to show these 
modern conquerors that there are millions of citizens who prefer to fall bravely in the 
arms of death rather than to witness the triumph of the odious flag of the tyrant of 
France in the country of the Hidalgos, Iturbides, and Zaragozas. 

Men of Jalisco of all classes, hasten to obey the call of the chief of the state ; let us 
offer him our lives and fortunes ; and let us rush full of ardent patriotism to form the new 
republican army which will give our enemies to understand that in the country of 
Prisciliano Sanchez there are yet thousands of names to become illustrious, combating in 
the national defence, like those of the Montenegros, Balcazares, and many others, which 
are now the honor of this great state. 

To you, brilliant youth of Jalisco, to you who are the hope for the future of your state, 
my feeble but patriotic voice calls to take up arms and worthily replace the sons whom 
Mexico has lost on the field of honor. Yes, you will go, my friends ; in your youthful 
forms, full of enthusiasm, I see the hope of our country ; from among you shall issue the 
thousands and thousands of geniuses who shall carry off the palm of victory from the 
hireling adventurers of France ; and you will hereafter be the pride of Jalisco, for having, 
with your blood and the might of your arms, paid the price of her independence and 
liberty. 

And you, wicked citizens, miserable outcasts, infamous traitors, woe be to you, if in 
those fiual moments you treacherously seek to assist the enemies of our liberty, because 
greater than your villany shall be the national punishment. Back ! Give way to freemen 
and loyal citizens, who go to comply with their dutv or to fall full of glory. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 22 



338 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Fellow-citizens, let us hasten to die, if it be necessary ; let us fall, borne down by brute 
force, if we cannot repel it ; but now and ever let our war-cry be : "Long live the Mexican 
republic! long live independence ! Long live Jalisco! and death to the French and 
traitors." 

IGNACIO 0. ECHEYERRIA. 



The. officers of the supreme tribunal of justice to t/teir fellow-citizens. 

Guadalajara, May 29, 1863. 

Men of Jalisco : The recent events of tbe war have proved disastrous to the national 
arms. It would be useless to seek to diminish the extent of the disgrace. Our loss has 
been great, very great, and however much the heart may feel it, its sorrow cannot equal 
the gravity of the situation. One of the most beautiful cities of our republic has been 
destroyed, many fortunes have been ruined, much of our materials of war have passed 
into the hands of the enemy, and, above all, the valor, the suffeiings, the self-denial, the 
heroism of our soldiers, have proved unavailing. Are not these motives for great affliction 
for every Mexican and even for every man in whom there exists a sympathy for the mis- 
fortunes of a people that suffers for the holiest of causes, which are its independence and 
the defence of its soil, trodden by the foot of the stranger ? 

The understanding is unable to comprehend how the French nation, which prides itself 
on its intelligence and high-mindedness, can maintain that they come to insure our happi- 
ness, by means of so many calamities, and that, by rekindling the fires of our intestine 
broils, they labor to ]estore our peace ; that, by favoring treason to the country, the most 
degrading vice that humanity has to complain of, the principles of morality and civil order 
are to be cemented, which are the sole salvation of all society ; how, by introducing them- 
selves into the midst of the civil war which devours us, and by raising up a vanquished 
party already dead through the very nature of things, we have to attain union and 
concord ; how, amid the din of arms, is to be sought the free vote of the people. 

In the condition to which the affairs of our country have arrived, when the question of 
justice is decided in our favor by the civilized world, it is idle to ask by what right this 
intervention is employed, for which we do not ask, which we resist, which we repel with 
all the strength of our soul. Now, at present, the Mexican desires to know why he is 
insulted, why he is mocked at by the invocation of such pietexts to trample on his most 
sacred rights. 

Eeverses ought not to extinguish, nor cool off, nor diminish our enthusiasm in the 
slightest degree. It is natural that our misfortunes should cause us grief ; but let us not 
be dismayed in the defence of our sacred cause We are not obliged to conquer. The 
issue of battles depends on a thousand circumstances which are not always in relation to 
each other, nor to the justice of the matter in question, nor to the valor of the combatants. 
But still it is our duty to embrace our banner and to press it to our hearts with so much 
the more force as our dangers are the greater, and to die in its embrace if death is the 
destiny which Providence designs for us. 

All Mexicans, each in his proper sphere, each in the line which suits him, accept the 
situation, and accept it with all its consequences. Let the invader domineer over the 
country, if he can ; but let it be after having conquered us in an obstinate contest, and 
when no longer any Mexican exists capable of bearing arms. 

Now, then, that the danger increases, that the question is one of force, that in outer to 
oppress us recourse is had to treason and to all sorts of means, no matter how wicked, the 
supreme tribunal of Jalisco undertakes to raise its voice in order to protest before the 
whole world against such iniquities, against such infamies, against the scandalous violation 
of our rights. The tribunal repeats that, in as far as it is concerned, it repels all foreign 
intervention and all such acts as emanate from it or from the intruding authorities which 
it sets up. 

Men of Jalisco, the hour of sacrifice has come. Let us nerve ourselves and be faithful 
'J he people that wishes to be free, no power is able to reduce into subjection. 

• IKSUS CAMARENA, President. 
JOSE" MARIA MACEDO. 
JUAN ANTONIO ROBLES. 
LEONARDO ANGULO. 

• I RAMON SOLIS. 

FERMIN <;. RIESTRA; Fiscal 

PABLO tGNACIO LORETO, Secretary «/" Decrees. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 339 

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT. 

Post Office, San Luis Potosi. 

In the city of San Luis Potosi, on the 20th day of the month of May, in the year 1863, the 
employes of this department, whose names are subscribed to this document, having 
assembled together, have resolved to protest solemnly against the intervention of any 
power or potentates whatever that may seek, either singly or collectively, to interfere in the 
political affairs of our country, and likewise to employ the forces and the means that are 
within the reach of each one of them, in order to oppose, disconcert, and destroy the pro- 
jects of intervention in our country manifested by the Emperor of the French, protesting 
likewise against the invasion of the national territory by the French troops, and against 
all acts emanating from the authorities that may be established under the influence of 
their armed forces in any quarter of the republic. 

We equally testify our most firm adhesion to the constitution of 1857 and to the laws of 
reform, as well as to the authorities and laws that emanate from the former. Conse- 
quently, we likewise protest the firmest adhesion and obedience to the Citizen Benito 
Juarez, as the representative of legality, democracy, and progress. 

A copy of this document shall be sent to the governor of this state, and another to the 
administrator general of this branch of the public service, for the ends that may follow. 

JACINTO AGUILAR. 
JOSE D. BELLO. 
LUIS ASTEGUI. , 
CALIXTO SANCHEZ 
LONGINOS RODRIGUEZ 
GERTRUDIO NINO. 



Second Class. — For the term of hvo years, including 1863. — One dollar. 

In the city of Tequisquiapan, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of May, in the year 
1863, the magistrates of whom this corporation is composed having assembled in this town- 
hall of the municipality, there was read the communication issued by the supreme govern- 
ment, and dated on the nineteenth of the present month. The said magistrates, being thus 
made acquainted with the contents of the aforesaid communication, unanimously resolved 
that the supreme government has never failed to recognize the representatives of this town 
as true Mexicans, descendants of Hidalgo, Allende, Morelos, and various other heroes, who 
knew how to achieve our independence, and rescue us from the slavery in which we found 
ourselves oppressed. Then, at the present time, the Mexican army confronts the invading 
enemy, and it is an obligation upon all to assist it in the preparations which it has to make 
in order to attend to the necessities of a cause which' our brothers defend in favor of our 
beloved country. We should all be branded with the name of traitors, if we did not seek 
to promote the cause of justice, which admits with pleasure not only the holocaust of life, 
but even the most trivial sacrifices, with which we should aid the cause of our national 
independence. 

The people of Potosi have ever been the first to defend the integrity of the national ter- 
ritory, and have never been sparing in their efforts in favor of the independence of our 
country ; in similar circumstances, on the present occasion, the present authorities of this 
town and the neighborhood find themselves, and protest solemnly to disavow the views 
advanced in any form by the invading enenry. 

With the which this document concludes, which is signed by the following citizens : Re- 
fugio Juarez, president of the corporation ; Austasio Ramirez, second magistrate ; Francisco 
Badillo, third ; Prudencio Anaya, fourth; Alvino Guerrero, syndic procurator; Andres 
Lopez, popular alcalde ; Damaso Manzanares, assistant alcalde ; Luis Camacho, municipal 
treasurer ; Jose Maria Azpeitia, civil judge ; and, as assistant magistrates, the first assistant 
president of the corporation, Julian Najera ; Juan Luna, second magistrate ; Jorge Beltran, 
third magistrate ; Secundino Lopez, fourth magistrate ; Juan Beltran, syndic procurator ; 
Juan Nepomuceno Narvaez, secretary ; who all unanimously sealed these presents, leaving 
it for transmission with the political chief of this capital. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CORPORATION OF SANTIAGO DEL RIO. 

In the town of Santiago del Rio, a suburb of the capital of the state of San Luis Potosi, 
on the twenty-second day of the month of May, in the year 1863, there having assembled 



340 MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 

in the town-ball the citizens who compose the corporation, mayor, and treasurer of the 
municipal funds, under the presidency of citizen Estevan Leija, the chief of the munici- 
pality, who had previously issued a proclamation for a call for this purpose, that same citi- 
zen rose to speak, and said, that as our dear country found herself invaded by the army 
of the French, and as the suprtme government of the nation combated with dignity this 
•unjust invasion, directed against it without any reason whatever, it was in his opinion a 
very suitable time for all the people to raise their voices against the foreign invasion, 
which, forgetting that the time for conquests has already past, pretends to lord it over the 
great country of Mexico, for that purpose taking advantage of the situation in which Mexico 
was seen to be, from the intestine wars which it has experienced since the period of its re- 
lease from the European domination, which held it in a backward state, and sunk in iguo- 
vaaice and slavery. It should never be forgotten that the citizens who are the inhabitants 
of the republic are descendants of Hidalgo, Allende, Morelos, and the other illustrious 
champions, who, overcoming all difficulty, proclaimed and succeeded in makingus free 
and independent. Wherefore, all the citizens, and in particular the authorities, consider 
it their duty to protest against any intervention whatever, which foreigners desire or pre- 
tend to have in the affairs of our country. So it has been understood by the government 
of the state, when it issued its decree for the removal of the seat of government from the 
capital, under date of the 15th of the present month, and when it issued the circular to the 
other functionaries, under date of the 18th of this same month. Therefore, the citizens 
present here may freely speak and discuss the purpose for which they have been convoked, 
and resolve in the manner that may seem most suitable to them. In virtue whereof, the 
following resolutions have been adopted by mutual and unanimous agreement : 

First. The constitutional corporation and other employes of this town, for themselves 
and in the name of the people whom they represent, protest in the most solemn manner 
against the unjust aggression made upon the republic by the army of the French 

Second. They likewise protest against any intervention, whatever it may be, that for- 
eigners wish or pretend to exercise in the affairs of Mexico ; because this republic, ever and 
forever, whatever sacrifices may have to be made, must be free, independent, and sovereign, 
and does not wish, and never will consent, that its sacred rights should be usurped by any 
other nation in the world. 

Ihird. A certified copy of the present resolutions is to be presented to the government 
of the state, by the means of the chief magistrate of the capital, for its information, and 
the purposes to which it may conduce. 

With which declaration these resolutions are closed, and signed and sealed by the presi- 
dent and other citizens, who have been called to the meeting and have concurred in their 
past-age. 

ESTEVAN LEIJA, President. 

QUIRINO MONTIEL, Mayor. 

PANTALEON MEIZA., Second Magistrate. 

VICTORIANO GARCIA, Third Magistrate. 

CAMILO GONZALES, Syndic Procurator. 

EDUWIGIS MONCADA, Treasurer. 

CANDELARIO HERNANDEZ, Secretary 

I certify this to be a true copy of the original which remains in the archives of the .cor- 
poration." Done at the town of Santiago del Rio, on the twenty-second da} of May, in the 
year 1863. 

ESTEVAN LEIJA, President. 

Candklario Hernandez, Secretary. 



OFFICE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CIVIL DEPARTMENT OF CATORCE 

Iii accordance with the exhortatory letter directed to this superior department, urging 
me, in union with the subordinate officials of the department, to manifest my opinion on 
the war nosv being maintained by the republic against foreign invasion, I have the pleasure 
of declaring for myself and in the name of the employes of this department, in order that 
it may be laid before the governor and the public, that I reprobate with all my heart and 
execrate the course Of conduct pursued by Napoleon III towards the Mexican republic as 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 341 

unjust, dishonest, and derogatory to the laws of nations : and I protest that I will, as far 
as lies in my power, provide for the supreme government of the nation all the means that 
I can as a public officer and as an individual to enahle it to attain the sacred end for which 
the glorious defenders of Z.iragoza have so heroically co-operated. I desire that the cut- 
throats of the tyrant of France may fly in terror before the soldiers of the people, and go 
hide themselves in the darkness of Napoleonic servilism, while the disgrace of their rout 
gives to the entire world an irrefragable testimony of the enkindled patriotism and valor 
of my fellow-citizens May the French eagle, the symbol of monarchical retrogradism, be 
humbled and abased befure the victorious flag of Mexico, and may the enlightened peoples 
of the new and old continents gaze in wonder on the regeneration of a heroic people, who, 
by the baptism of blood, are born again for liberty. 

Our country, independence, liberty, and reform ! 

Catorcb, May 21, 1863. 

ANTONIO PRISCILIANO HERMOSILLO. 

Manuel Nakvaez, Secretary. 

Marcellno J. Castillo, Clerk. 

Poefirio Narvaez. Clerk 



In the city of Guadalcazir, on the twenty-first day of the month of May, in the year 
1863, the authorities and officers whose names are hereunto subscribed, having been called 
together at the invitation of the political chief of the department, for the purpose of taking 
into consideration the circumstances into which the republic finds itself involved through 
the unjust war waged upon our soil by the tyrant of France, the grounds were examined 
on which the invaders have pretended to support their unjust aggression, and it has clearly 
appeared that they differ much from the humanitarian sentiments by which a strong and 
powerful people should strive to elevate the civilization and fraternity of their neighbors 
when these latter are deficient in those qualities. Very different are the views which the 
monarch of the warlike people of France entertains towards our race and republic, since 
carnage and slaughter do not constitute the sort of protection which the powerful affords 
to the weak in order to elevate him to an equality, and that they may both march together 
in unison to prosperity and greatness. It is a criminal conquest, indeed, by which it is 
sought to blot the name of Mexico from the catalogue of the free nations of the earth ; it 
is by destruction that the independence is threatened which our fathers acquired with their 
blood and with their lives ; and it is, in fine, a rude blow that is struck at our republican 
and democratic institutions ; and for this it is that miserable renegades, branded with the 
mark of infamy and treason, now come leagued with that dishonored flag which, in all 
ages, symbolized the victories and the glory of France. 

Our young republic has been villanously and cowardly assaulted by that nation, and in 
favor of her sacred rights she is justified in defending herself with heroism until she issues 
safe from the conflict or perishes with honor. We, her sons, are acquainted with the 
perfidy with which the conqueror, like the wolf in the skin of the sheep, brings extermi- 
nation an 1 ruin to our soil, in order to debase us and make us tributaries and slaves by 
means of an allied monarch, through whom he pretends to govern us. But, if such a 
throne should ever succeed in being established, it must be over heaps of dead bodies, 
accumulated in lakes of blood. 

Now we are in the conflict, the precious blood of our brothers flows in torrents in the 
east, and their exploits and heroic resistance in the invincible city of Ziragoza place Mexico 
at such a height of greatness that it is the admiration of Europe, because its children have 
known how to conquer the strength of the first soldiers of the world, and to imprint a 
stigma of disgrace on the breasts of those eagles which soared in proud triumph over the 
turreted walls of Sebastopol and on the field of Solferino. The nation rises in a body to 
chastise the enemies of our independence and of our institutions, and this explains the 
fact that the mischievous intentions of the Emperor of the French are now laid open to the 
light of truth. 

In the midst of this war-cry, breathed from the noble breasts of Mexicans, we should 
listen to the solemn protest which we should all loudly enter against this unjust invasion 
which is brought to attack us on our own soil, at the threshold of our own doors, and also 
against this monarchy, which the traitors pretend to establish with the aid of France. We, 
as Mexicans, lovers of our independence, and decided defenders of o»""" dberty and of our 
institutions, protest solemnly, in the face of the world, against the French invasion, directed 
against us by the despot Napoleon III. We protest against the monarchy which it is pre- 
tended to establish on our soil, and we protest that we will sacrifice all our fortunes and 
shed all our blood in favor of our independence and of ok: liberal institutions. 



342 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

In affirmance of which, and in order that our patriotic sentiments may he known to all, 
wc sign and seal these presents, of which a copy shall be transmitted to the first magistrate 
of the state, in order that he may be made acquainted with the resolution of the people of 
Guadalcazar, manifested by their authorities and officers. 

FRANCISCO ANTONIO OLAEZ. 

Political Chief of the Department. 

TOMAS RTJIGONEZ, 
Firtl Alcalde, icith the functions of a Judge of tlie Court of First Instance. 

JOSE MARIA. BELLOECHIO, Second Alcalde. 

JOSE LEON GARCIA, Assistant Second Alcalde. ■ 

CRISTOBAL CORDOVA, Civil Judge. 

JOSE MERCED CASTRO, Administrator of Rents. 

NIEVES E. SALINAS, Administrator of Stamps. 

BRUNO A. OLAVIDE, Administrator of the Post Office. 

FELIX NOYOLA, President of the Corporation. 

JULIO CORONADO, Magistrate. 

ANTONIO CORDOVA, Magistrate. 

PEDRO VEJO, Syndic Procurator. 

JUAN TAMAYO, Syndic Procurator. 

JOSE CRUZ TOSCANO, 

First Deputy of the Mining Bureau. 

HIGINIO CORONADO, Second Deputy. 

CAYETANO SOTURA, Consultor and Deputy. 

CARLOS CORONADO, Municipal Treasurer. 

GREGORIA GOMEZ Y CELIA. 

An evict copv of the original. — Gaudalcazar, May 21, 1863. 

F. A. OLAEZ 

GREGORIO GOMEZ Y CELIA. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CORPORATION OF THK MUNICIPALITY OF BOCAS. 

The corporation of this municipality, over which I have the honor to preside, haviag 
been assembled in extraordinary session on this present day, has resolved that it is its duty 
to co-operate in the peace of our republic, as all good Mexicans and loyal sons of our adored 
and bcloyed country, and, for the greater satisfaction of your excellency, has drawn up 
this present document, of which, with all due respect, I transmit a certified copy with the 
present communication for your information. In it we protest solemnly against any foreign 
power whatever that proposes or thinks to invade our republic, which we will not consent 
that they should freely trample on until we first fall victims to their deceitful conquests, as 
our brothers and the heroes of liberty have pointed out the way to us. 

May your excellency be pleased to accept the assurance of our consideration and distin- 
guished esteem. 

God, liberty, and reform ! 

Municipality of Bocas, May 22, 1863. 

PORFIRIO MARTINEZ 

Feliciano Jacoiso, Secretary. 



ILLUSTRIOUS CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF VENADO. 

In the city of Venado, on the twcnty-secon.l day of the month of May, in the year 
1863, the illustrious corporation of this city, having assembled in extraordinary session 
under the presidency cf citizen Eduwigio Dominguez, and in view of a communication 
received from the office of the chief of the department, and issuing from the government 
of the state, the contents of which were received with much interest, was moved by its 
own instincts and the fulness of its patriotic enthusiasm to give expression to its feelings. 
After having seriously discussed the critical state in which our republic is situated, on 
account of its invasion by the French, and taking into consideration the heavy evils which 
may be expected if the country does not continue heroically to maintain its independence, 
therefor employing all its forces, as she did in the invincible city of Zaragoza, (a glorious 
fact and most worthy of history :) then possessed with a true love and humanity towards 
ourselves in the maintenance of our independence and nationality, which constitute a 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 343 

sacred duty for every Mexican, and will be a source of crime to him if he shows himself 
indifferent to them; for which reason, with unanimous and solemn protest, this illustrious 
corporation records its declaration against all foreign intervention, as it also protests its 
desire to labor in every possible manner to carry out the views which the supreme govern- 
ment of the state proposes to itself to follow, according to the divers official communica- 
tions in reference to this laudable object, published in the official organ of the same gov- 
ernment. That the present protest may be brought to the knowledge of the supreme 
government, it was ordered that a copy of the original be taken and transmitted through 
the proper channel. And finally, the members of the corporation signed it before me, the 
secretary, who now authenticate it. 

EDUWIGIO DOMINGUEZ. 

FRANCISCO HERMOSILLO. 

ANTONIO PUENTE. 

TRINIDAD PONCE. 

IRENEO MARTINEZ. 

AGDSTIN OLIVEROS. 

JUAN ROCHA. 

LORENZO ROBLEDO, Secretary. 
A true copy. — Venado, May 29, 1863. 

EDUWIGIO DOMINGUEZ. 
Lobes z) Eobledo, Secretary. 



Office of the Political Chief of the Department of Salinas del Penon Blanco, 

Subordinate Bureau of Stamfs at Salinas. 

In the town of Salinas, on the twenty- second day of the month of May, in the year 1863, 
the subscribing citizens, having assembled in the hall of this office, publish the following 
exposition to the nation : 

Great have been the events through which we have passed since December, 1S57, to the 
present date — events as glorious as those of our independence, and perhaps to be brilliant 
examples in the history of the people of the globe. For what were the means on which 
our fathers counted to effect the independence of our country? None but the people. 
What were the means with which our former statesmen counted to overthrow the colossal 
tyranny that overshadowed us and cut the roots that had grown for three hundred years ? 
Public opinion ; the people, for they are sovereign. But what is the misfortune of our 
unhappy country, to shed so much blood on fields of battle ? Some few spurious sons of 
Mexico, luxuriating in gold and honor, have called in the Frenchman to ruin his parent 
country, who yet has been unable, either by force or by opinion, to triumph, because on every 
side they have seen themselves repulsed; but on both the traitors and their abettors shall fall 
the malediction of the people, the malediction of the nations, and, sooner or later, the 
punishment of the Eternal. 

Eighteen months have now passed since the foul footsteps of the invader have polluted 
our soil, and since, with villanous deceit, he abused the unsuspecting faith of the supreme 
government of the nation, by breaking the preliminary treaty of La Soledad ; their inten- 
tion then, as now, having been to recur to corrupt and damnable treason for success, as 
they knew well that it would have been very difficult for them to pass our first positions at 
Chiquihuite, and therefore they little regarded their treaty stipulations or their honor. 
Twenty days of siege did the invincible position of Zaragoza withstand, and not an inch of 
oarth has the perfidious Frenchman gained by force, because that worthy army of the east 
is invincible, because it defends its country, it defends its independence, it defends its 
liberty, and finally, because the God of armies protects our cause, and we will triumph over 
Napoleon III. But if, through any caprice of war, (which will not be more than tempo- 
rary,) the invaders and traitors should believe themselves triumphaut in their perfidious 
treason, we, the subscribers, as representatives of the people, in the presence of the nation 
and of the entire world, sign the following protest : 

1. Not to recognize any other government than that legitimately constituted, and the 
authorities emanating by our laws from the constitution of 1857. 

2. To recognize the whole Mexican republic as a free, sovereign, and independent nation. 

3. To repel and disavow all intervention by France, or by any other power, having for 
its object the conquest of Mexico or the establishment of a protectorate, which the Mexican 
republic has clearly, legally, and spontaneously expressed its purpose neither to solicit nor 
to allow 

4. To admit no intervention, direct or indirect, physical or moral, in the internal poli- 
tics of the country. 

5. That it approves and recognizes the right which Mexico possesses to repel force by 
force, to resist the unjust invasion of the French, because their government has ~ ; olated 



344 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

the law of nations, and taken advantage of the honesty and good faith of the Mexican 
nation . 

6. Neither in consequence of the occupation of the capital, nor of any of the states, nor 
of the whole republic, no matter for how long a period, will we consent to any treaty 
humiliating or dishonorable for Mexico. 

7. Mexico shall always preserve her right of insurrection against Napoleon III or an- 
other usurper whatever. 

8. We declare every Mexican a traitor against the nation who directly or indirectly aids 
the invader. 

9. At the same time 'we declare every Mexican a traitor who promotes or participates in 
associations or movements directed against the constitution of 1857, the laws of reform, and 
the particular constitutions of the different states, emanating from them, or against the 
authorities legally constituted under those laws. 

To give them due effect, these resolutions are reduced to writing, ratified by the persons 
who participated in their passage, and signed bv them with me. 

GERTRUDIO FERNANDEZ, Chief of this Department. 
IRENEO DELGADO, First Magistrate. 
JUAN C. ISAIS, Second Magistrate. 
GAVINO HERNANDEZ, Third Magistrate. 



In the town of San Juan de Guadelupe, on the twenty-fourth day of May, in the year 
1863, in virtue of the exhortatory letter issued by the supreme government of the state, 
and transmitted through the hands of the political chief of the department, the commis- 
sioner, whose name is subscribed to this document, invited the authorities and Gitizens of 
this town to meet in the town hall, where, after the readiDg of the above-mentioned com- 
munication, being impressed with its contents, they unanimously resolved, that, being 
proud of their position as Mexicans and their conviction of the rights of the nation, and of 
the glory of Mexico, raised to the rank of a free, sovereign, and independent people, by 
the heroic sacrifices of Hidalgo and Morelos, and many others, who bequeathed an inesti- 
mable benefit to their posterity, which it is the sacred duty of these to preserve ; but in 
the present circumstances, the ambition of Napoleon III, disguised and urged on by the 
pitiful pretexts of some few traitors, who, in the attitude of most degrading supplication, 
like miserable reptiles, have gone to ask protection for their people, who need not such 
protection, but only these who have always desired and sometimes succeeded in effecting 
their desire to retard it in the way of the human perfection to which the hand of God 
directs it, in order that the few might live to the prejudice of the many; and when the Mexi- 
can people, victoriously traversing the path of reform, annihilates them as a mere handful 
of contemptible people, they hope from Napoleon III that, in exchange for the independ- 
ence of their country, he will turn over to them its destinies and other things which they 
ambition ; that such considerations demand the expression of the frank and loyal senti- 
ments of the inhabitants of all the communities of the republic, in order that the entire 
world may know the noble and natural enthusiasm of their patriotism ; that therefore, 
those present, representing the authorities and citizens of this town, in the name of this 
people, express their sentiments as follows : 

1. That they protest in the most solemn manner before God, the nation, and the civil- 
ized peoples of the world, against the war so UDjustly, so utterly without shadow of right, 
and to the scandal of the world, waged upon our soil by the Emperor of the French, 
Napoleon III, who hypocritically offers us a protection which we have not asked of him, 
and which we do not need of him, his principal end being our conquest, and that in per- 
fidious disregard of our sacred right to independence. 

2. That it is a holy duty for Mexicans to sustain, with their persons and property, the 
contest now waged for the preservation of our beloved country, and we protest our readi- 
ness to act in this crisis as good Mexicans. 

3. That Almonte and all the traitors who have followed in the wake of the French in- 
tervention lie most villainously is the decided persuasion of all Mexicans. 

With which propositions we conclude these presents, which are ordered to be transmitted 
through the hands of the political chief of the department to be laid before the supreme 
government of the state ; wherefore we sign and seal them. 

MAGDALENO HERNANDEZ. 

SEBASIIAN BLANCO. 

LEON GARCIA. 

LUCAS ARAUJO 

V1VIANO PEREZ. 

EDUARDO ALTAMIRA. 

FAUSTINO IZQUIERDA. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 345 

CONSTITUTIONAL CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF CATORCE. 

In the city of Purisima Conception de Catorce, on the twenty-second day of the month 
of May, in the year 1863, the corporation having assembled, on motion of the political 
chief of the department, the session was opened with the reading of a circular from the su- 
preme government of the state, bearing date on the fifteenth of the present month, by 
which the corporations, authorities, and public functionaries of the same are called upon 
to manifest the sentiments which they entertain in respect to the war which is now main- 
tained by the republic against the troops of the Emperor of the French. After proper de- 
liberation on the part of the greater number of the individuals present, they unanimously 
resolved in the name of the corporation : 

That they protest in the most solemn manner against the unjustifiable invasion now suf- 
fered by the republic, because it offends against all the rights and principles sanctioned 
and recognized in civilized countries, it attacks the independence and sovereignty of the 
Mexican republic, without motive, without pretext, and without the slightest appearance 
of justice, but merely through pure ostentation of power, since neither the French nation 
nor its Emperor has any grievances to demand satisfaction for, or any debts to be recovered 
by means of war ; 

That they likewise protest that they repudiate, by all the means in their power, the- 
iniquitous and unwarrantable invasion, and therein express the consciousness entertained by 
the people whom they represent of the justice of the cause of their country, who will know 
how to sacrifice themselves in its defence. 

And in order that this protest may lose nothing of its force and effect, it is signed by the- 
citizens present on the day and date specified. 

JUAN N. MATA, President. 

FELIPE B. CABRAL, First Magistrate. 

JOSE MARIA GUADIANA, Second Magistrate. 

BARNABE ROCHA, Substitute Third Magistrate. 

LUCIANO TABARES, Fourth Magistrate. 

TIMOTEO IBARRO, Fifth Magistrate. 

ONOFRE NINO, First Syndic. 

JOSE" ISABEL BAEZ, Second Syndic. 

I certify that this is a faithful and legal copy taken from the original and compared with 
the same, to which I refer. 

NESTOR MARTINEZ, Secretary. 
Catoece, May 25, 1863. 



OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF RAYON. 

In the town of Rayon, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of May, in the year 1863, 
the corporation having been assembled in extraordinary session, for which it was convoked' 
on this day at three o'clock in the evening, the president read the communication of the 
political chief of Rioverde, under date of the twentieth instant, and the corporation having 
become acquainted with its contents, unanimously resolved : 

That abounding in patriotic sentiments, as they have on other occasions manifested, they 
solemnly protest anew against all foreign intervention, and they promise by all the means 
in their power to sustain the national independence at all hazards under the democratic 
institutions which now govern us, being fully convinced that the person possessing the ex- 
ecutive power of the nation has displayed great ability, firmness, and good tact in the 
national defence, with a constancy and serenity proper to his character, which worthily- 
entitles him to the esteem and confidence of all who, like the members of this corporation,, 
have the honor to be Mexicans. 

That a certified copy of this vote of confidence be transmitted to the office of the chief of 
the department, wherewith this session is brought to a close, and the present resolutions- 
are drawn up and are signed by the members of the corporation, together with the secre- 
tary who authenticates them. 

NIOANOR SALAZAR, First Magistrate, Assistant. 

ANSELMO CASTILLO, Third Magistrate. 

PEDRO OLVERA, Fourth Magistrate. 

PEDRO MARTINEZ, Syndic Procurator. 

GREGORIO SANCHEZ, Magistrate, Secretary. 

A certified copy.— Rayon, May 26, 1863. 

NICANOR SALAZAR. 
Gregorio Sanchez, Secretary. 



346 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

In the town of San Sebastian de San Luis Potosi, on the twenty-sixth day of the mouth 
of May, in the year 1863, the citizens composing the authorities of the same town, the 
officials, assistants, and other inhabitants present, having assembled in the town hall of 
the corporation, the citizen president of the corporation proceeded to read the circular 
issued by the supreme government of the state, under date of the fifteenth instant, in re- 
gard to the drawing up of a protest against the attacks of other powers, whereby the 
national sovereignty of the Mexican republic is endangered. Accordingly, the citizens 
present agreed upon the following articles : 

First. That they solemnly protest against any attack whatever by a foreign power, where- 
by the national sovereignty is endangered ; and that they will recognize no other sovereignty 
than that of Mexico, which they will sustain at all hazards. 

Second. That they will acknowledge no other government, be it what it may, than that 
which actually rules over us now, and has been established by the unanimous vote of the 
people ; and this they will support in like manner. 

Third. That a copy of these resolutions be taken and transmitted to the secretary of the 
supreme government of the state, in order that the said secretary may lay the same before 
the governor. 

Wherefore the resolutions are signed and sealed by the following citizens, present with 
me, the president, being unanimously agreed in all its provisions. I authenticate it. 

FELICIANO MARTINEZ, President. 

BONIFACIO BRAVO, Assistant. 

QUIRINO PEREZ, Second Magistrate. 

MARTIN PASTRANO, Assistant. 

SIMON MARTINEZ, Third Magistrate. 

FLORENCIO BUENO, Assistant. 

ISABEL BLANCO, Syndic Procurator. 

BERNARDINO GARCIA, Assistant. 

BERNABE VAZQUEZ, Alcalde. 

MAMERTO ELEDESMA, Assistant. 

JULIO PEREZ, 

LINO TORRES, 

MERGED GONZALEZ, 

VICENTE CASTILLO, 

CECILIO GONZALEZ, 

ENRIQUE MUGICA Y SOTO MAYOR, 

MATIAS LOPEZ, 

CARMEN IBARRA, 

Citizens. 

This is a copy of the original which remains in the archives of the office of the secretary 
of the corporation. 

QUIRINO PEREZ, 

Acting Secretary. 



TUK VERY ILLUSTRIOUS CORPORATION OF TLAXCALA. 

In the town of Tlaxcala, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of May, in the year 1863, 
the honorable members of the corporation and their assistants having assembled in the town- 
hall of the said town, under the presidency of the first magistrate of the illustrious copor- 
ration, Norverto Suarez, in order to give effect to the supreme enactment of the govern- 
ment of the state, transmitted through the chief of the capital, the aforesaid enactment 
was taken into consideration, and the circular having been read in a loud voice by citizen 
Pablo Vasquez, the aforesaid president addressed the meeting in reference to the reso- 
lution to be adopted in an affair of such vital importance in defence of our independence 
which is sought to be taken away from us by the foreign enemy who has violated our ter- 
ritory and sacrificed with ruffian hand the existence of our brethren, who have preferred to 
die upon the battle-field rather than to bear the yoke which is sought to be imposed upon 
us. Whereupon, anxious for the preservation of our national sovereignty, they unanimously 
resolved, with one voice, to enter their solemn protest, now and forever, and in every way, 
against the slaves of the despot Napoleon 111, and his pretensions in the wicked invasion, 
in reference to which these present resolutions, the original draught of which remains in the 
archives of this office, but of which a copy shall !>„> transmitted to the chief of the depart- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 347 

ment to be laid by him before the supreme government Wherefore, the members of the 
corporation have hereunto attached their signatures, and, with me, authenticate the docu- 
ment. 

NORVERTO SUAREZ, President. 

MARIANO MORALES, Alcalde. 

LUCIANO ARIAS, Assistant 

JUAN CARRIZALEZ, Second Magistrate. 

MIGUEL PARDO, Third Magistrate. 

CRUZ LOPEZ. Syndic Procurator. 

PABLO VASQUEZ, Assistant President. 

JUAN GARCIA, Assistant Second Magistrate. 

FRANCISCO ORTEGA, Assistant Third Magistrate. 

JUAN PABLO LOPEZ, Assistant Procurator. 

BENITO LOPEZ, Treasurer. 

ANTONIO DE P. SALAZAR. 

JUAN LOPEZ 

DIONICTO VASQUEZ. 

JULIEN JARA. 

JESUS CONTRERAS. 

POLICARPO GONZALEZ. 

JOSE MARIA MARTINEZ 

SIMON GARCIA. 

V1V1ANO DE LEON 

AGAPITO TOVAR. 

JUAN ALFARO. 

LEON RAMIREZ. 

TEOFILO RAMOS. 

JOSE MARIA MEDINA. 

PABLO ALVAREZ. 

FELIPE RODRIGUEZ. 

MARIANO CORPOS. 

GORGONIO LOPEZ. 

JUAN SOTO. 

FELIX JARAMILLO. 

LEONIDES MARTINEZ. 

SERAPIO MACIAS. 

LEANDRO NUNEZ. 

This is a true copv of the original which remains in the archives of this corporation. 

NORVERTO SUAREZ, President. 



POLITICAL AND MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF SAN LUIS POTOSI — MOCTEZUMA DEPARTMENT 
LUIS GASCON, POLITICAL CHIEF OF THE MOCTEZUMA DEPARTMENT. 

Considering that the war declared against Mexico by the Emperor of the French is in 
every way unjust, impolitic, and undeserved ; 

That by it he attacks in a scandalous manner the sovereignty and independence of a 
natiop, heretofore recognized by all the European powers, in the full enjoyment of its rights, 
of its prerogatives, and of its privileges ; 

That by this extraordinary invasion a most flagrant outrage is committed against the 
law of nations and against international law, which all civilized nations respect ; 

That it is an insult to the dignity of the Mexican nation to pretend to convert it into a 
colony tributary to the throne of France ; 

That, with the most unheard-of injustice, the Emperor of the French seeks to establish 
an odious and repugnant intervention in the destinies of the Mexican republic, which has 
hitherto governed itself and will continue to govern itself, notwithstanding the wicked 
pretension of that tyrant to enslave it ; 

And that, finally, the expression of the Mexican people, freely and spontaneously given 
in the heroic resistance which it opposes to the enemy of its sovereignty and independence, 
as manifested in the defence of the unconquered city of Puebla de Zaragoza, is that the 
country must rule itself and be governed according to the laws and by the authorities 
emanating from the constitution : 

I have deemed it my duty, as a good Mexican and as an officer, to protest, as I hereby 
do protest, for myself and in the name of the department with which I am intrusted, 



348 • MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

against the unjust war entered upon by the Emperor of the French against Mexico, my 
country ; and I protest against all foreign intervention by which it is sought to outrage 
and wound our national sovereignty. 

And in order that the sentiments by which I am animated may have a public mani- 
festation, I entreat the supreme government of the state to be pleased to grant that this 
protest be inserted in the official periodical. 
1 LUIS CtASCON. 

Mociezuma, May 21, 1868. 



CONSTITUTIONAL COBPOEATIOX OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF BOCAS. 

In the municipality of Booas, on the twenty-second day of the month of May, in the year 
1863, the honorable corporation, composed of the citizens Porfirio Martinez, first magis- 
trate ; Estevan Nino, second magistrate ; Julio Baez, third magistrate ; Victoriano Chavira, 
syndic procurator, and Feliciano Jacobo, secretary, having assembled under the presidency 
of the first-named citizen, and there bs ing present likewise the citizens Isabel Guadalupe 
Garcia, the only justice of the peace; Pedro Cisneros, receiver of rents and collector of 
direct taxes, and Crescenciano Martinez, municipal treasurer, the honorable president said 
that the purpose of calling the honorable body to an extraordinary session was in order to 
have a communication read which he had received from the secretary of the supreme 
government, under date of the twentieth of the present month ; and thereupon, the com- 
munication having been read by the secretary, the honorable corporation considered its 
contents, as did also the other citizens present, and being asked their respective opinions 
in regard to the communication just read, all unanimously, both the members of the cor- 
poration and the officials mentioned, said that, abounding in the most ardent patriotism, 
both as public functionaries and as sons of our beloved country, Mexico, they express their 
free opinions and aspirations in the following articles : 

1. We solemnly protest against all foreign intervention whatever that seeks to over- 
throw the actual institutions by which we are governed. 

2. We likewise protest that we will support with our persons and our fortunes our inde- 
pendence and the integrity of our republic. 

3. A certified copy of these proceedings will be transmitted to the supreme government 
by the ordinary channels. 

Whereupon the session was closed by the reduction to writing of these resolutions for 
the preservation of the same ; and they were signed before me, the secretary, who authen- 
ticate them, by the citizens Porfirio Martinez, first magistrate and president ; Estevan NiQo, 
second magistrate ; Julio Baez, third magistrate ; Victoriano Chavira, syndic procurator ; 
Feliciano Jacobo, secretary ; and the public officials, Isabel Guadalupe Garcia, justice of the 
peace, Pedro Cisneros, receiver of taxes, and Crescenciano Martinez, municipal treasurer. 

I certifv this to be a true copv. 

PORFIRIO MARTINEZ. 

Feliciano Jacobo, Secretary. 

Municipality of Boca, May 22, 1863. 



We, the subscribing citizens, having met in the hall of the honorable corporation of this 
town, and being made acquainted by the municipal chief with the exhortatory circular, of 
the date of the 15th of the current month, issued by the governor of the state, being filled 
with the liveliest enthusiasm as sons of Mexico, and possessed with the patriotic love which 
inspires our hearts and by the faith which we have in Providence that we will triumph in 
this unjust war made upon us by France, aided by wicked men and traitors, whose sole 
employment is to spill the blood of just men engaged in the defence of their nationality, 
and to see innocent families sacrificed, of whom so many have recently perished — with 
unanimous accord, and proud to record the glory which we enjoy in calling ourselves 
Mexicans, we enter a solemn and firm protest that we will sustain the supreme government 
with all the means that may be in our power, even to the shedding of the last drop of 
our blood on the field of honor to save our independence and to assure the liberty of our 
tender families. It shall, therefore, be our glory to die and never to humble ourselves 
beneath the proud foot of the Frenchman and of his accursed allies, those monsters of 
humanity. 

This protestation, which we have the honor and the satisfaction of making, we have 
agreed to lay before the citizen chief of this municipality, in order that it may. by cony 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 349 

or original, or in whatever way may seem convenient, be transmitted through the usual 
channels to the citizen governor, to whom we offer the assurance of our sincere patriotism, 
and likewise our respectful esteem and consideration. 

Liberty and independence, or death!— Iturbide, May 26, 1863. 

VICENTE CELESTINO MARTINEZ 

ATANACIO MARTINEZ. 

ANTONIO D. OROZCO. 

JUAN PARTIDA. 

PORFIRIO TRISTAIN. 

BENITO TRISTAIN. 

LIDRONIO A. AGTJIRRE. 

AGAPITO DE LA ROSA. 

FRANCISCO M. RAMOS. 

ANDRES MARTINEZ. 

I. ISIDRO MARTINEZ. 

SANTIAGO NIETO. 

SECUNDINO CARRIZAL. 

FRANCISCO TORRE BLANCA. 

FRANCISCO HURTADO. 



In the town of Cedral, on the twenty-ninth day of May, in the year 1863, the right 
honorable corporation having assembled in the town-hall, and having taken into consider- 
ation the circular issued by the governor of the state, under date of the 18th of the current 
month, protests in the most solemn manner, before the country and the other civilized 
nations of the globe, against the unjust aggression made upon our soil by the Emperor of 
the French, in violation of national rights and of the law of nations, purposing to destroy 
the liberal government which now holds Mexico constituted as a free and sovereign state 
and by the popular will. It likewise protests its desire to avenge the blood of our brethren 
unjustly shed in the defence of the heroic city of Zaragoza, and likewise offers to contribute 
by all the means in its power to assist the supreme magistrate of the republic to maintain 
the honor and dignity of the republic outraged by this invasion, until due reparation is 
obtained. 

APOLONIO CAMARILLO. 

APOLONIO FRESNILLO, Second Magistrate. 

PROSPERO CARDENAS, Third Magistrate. 

PEDRO LOPEZ MORALEZ, Fourth Magistrate. 

RAMON VALERO, Secretary. 

DOROTEO MERLO, Secretary. 



SECOND COURT OF THE TOWN OF CEDRAL. 

City of Cedral, May 31, 1863. 
We, the subscribers, first and second justices of the peace of this town, judge of the civil 
court, clerk of the courts, and alcalde of the prison, desiring not to be the last to testify our 
opinion before the nation, the civilized world, and the whole globe, do so in the following 
form : 

1. We protest solemnly against the unjust invasion of our territory by Napoleon III, 
Emperor of the French, without reasonable cause, without declaration of war, and in the 
use of his power merely in favor of some traitorous Mexicans who have inspired their 
sinister views into him. 

2. We solemnly protest against all intervention, pretended to be assumed by the French 
chiefs now resident in the heroic city of Zaragoza, in the actual government of Mexico 
legitimately constituted, as also against all foreign intervention whatever, be its designa- 
tion what it may. 

3. We protest loudly and solemnly that we will maintain our actual form of govern- 
ment, popular, federal, representative, the liberal constitution of 1857, sworn to, sanctioned, 
and revised by the free, explicit, and voluntary vote of the whole nation, with very rare 
exceptions of persons of retrograde views. 

4. We protest in the most solemn mauner that we will maintain the honor and dignity 
of the citizen president, Benito Juarez, as the only legitimate representative of the nation. 

JOSE NICOLAS MANZANO, Fint Alcalde. 
TEODORO PUENTE, Second Alcalde. 
GUADALUPE F. PALOS, Civil Judge. 
PABLO ROCHA, Alcalde. 
MODESTO G. HOGUELA, Secretary. 



350 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

In the town of Matehuela, on the thirtieth day of May, in the year 1863, the president 
and members of the corporation, citizens Joaquin Castillo, Isidore Estrada, Jesus Pimentel ; 
the syndics, Francisco Pedraza and Juan Huerta ; the first and second alcaldes, citizens 
Francisco Soberon and Mariano Escoto ; also, the administrator of the customs, Manuel 
Martinez; the municipal treasurer, citizen Jesus Reyes; the civil judge and administrator 
of the post office, citizen Jesus Vargas ; the administrator of stamps, citizen Cayetano A. 
Gaitau ; the administrator of the public granary, citizen Miguel Medrano ; the master of 
posts, citizen Juan Gaitau ; the president of the board of primary instruction, citizen Anas- 
tasio Moreno ; and the secretary of the same, citizen Julio Armijo, having.met in the town- 
hall, being invited to an extraordinary meeting therein by the citizen president above 
mentioned, the secretary of the corporation read the communication addressed to them, 
under date of the twenty-seventh of the present month, by the political chief of the city 
of Catorce, urging them to protest against the French invasion, which has so unjustly at- 
tacked the rights of the nation. The opinion of all the individuals present being consulted 
by the citizen president, fall of the enthusiasm becoming every Mexican breast, they agreed, 
with common accord, to protest, as they do, before the nation and the entire world, against 
the armed intervention which the Emperor of the French has directed against our beautiful 
country. They protest with equal energy against all foreign intervention whatever, that 
has for its object the establishment of any other government than the present one, adopted 
by the majority of the nation, and intrusted for its administration to the worthy as well 
as courageous Benito Juarez. Finally, they protest that they will maintain, in every pos- 
sible manner, with their lives and their fortunes, the national integrity and the public 
liberties, because they would prefer to suffer any misery, even to the abandonment of their 
homes, rather than submit to the exacting caprices of mercenary and unworthy foreigners. 
These resolutions were signed by them in presence of me, the secretary. I authenticate 
them. 

JOAQUIN CASTILLO. 

ISIDORO ESTRADA. 

JESUS PIMENTEL. 

FRANCISCO PEDRAZA. 

JUAN HUERTE. 

FRANCISCO SOBERON. 

MARIANO ESCOTO. 

MANUEL MARTINEZ. 

JESUS REYES. 

JESUS VARGAS. 

CAYETANO A. GAITAU. 

MIGUEL MEDRANO. 

JUAN GAITAU. 

ANASTASIO MOEESO. 

JULIO ARMIJO. 

I certify this to be a true copy. Office of the secretary of the corporation of Matehuela, 
May 31, 1863. 

JESUS DELGADO, 

Secretary pro (em. 



The people of the capital of Tamaulipas united in publ c meeting, the political chief of 
the central district being president, make the following declaration of their ideas and po- 
litical sentiments, in the most spontaneous, frank, and solemn manner possible : 

It will adhere to liberty and reform, for that divine system makes all men equal, and 
grants equal rights and guarantees to all. 

It is firmly convinced that peace, order, morality, and justice can only exist under demo- 
cratic principles, and the aggrandizement and happiness of Mexico can be attained. 

It is convinced in th? same manner with regard to the causes that have retarded its pro- 
gress, that they are no others than the continued revolutions that have taken place from 
the time of independence to the present day, all made by the clergy and the army, to de- 
fend their ridiculous privileges, and establish tyranny, by which the nation has Buffered 
immense sacrifices, and, what is still more painful, lost thousands of innocent victims. 

It is persuaded, by what has occurred in the past as well as what is occurring in the 
present, that the reactionary party, as int'.imous as it is cowardly, has crawled to the feet 
of Napoleon HI, the tyrant, to offer him the dominion of Mexico, in exchange that the 
clergy should continue in the full enjoyment of the usurped mortmain property, and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



351 



that they, in connexion with the army, should reconquer the sovereignty and privileges 
they formerly possessed, to the dishonor of the nation. 

The intervention solicited by the unnatural sons of Mexico, and conceded by Napoleon, 
is a scandalous violation of the treaty of London, in which the principle of respecting the 
autonomy and independence of the republic was most solemnly stated. 

The false offers of Forey, nor the vain words of the traitors that follow him, can deceive 
the people. The forces of France have been sent to Mexico only to establish a monarchical 
government, to rob and tyrannize the people in the most cruel and barbarous manner 
known. 

The intervention is to Napoleon the pride, vanity, and ostentation of the power he has 
usurped ; to those Mexicans that consent to it, ignominy, shame, and degradation. It will 
not be the people of Ciudad Victoria who will throw such an infamous stain upon their con- 
duct ; it hates despots, and will curse them eternally. 

Thus it protests, before the God of nations, against all foreign intervention in the affairs 
of Mexico, and particularly against the infamous and unjust invasion of the French army. 

It proposes, also, from its innermost heart, to place itself at the disposal of the consti- 
tutional authorities, to defend constantly the independence of the country, menaced by 
Frenchmen and traitors, and to sustain the democratic institutions which now govern us. 

Such is the political faith and feeling of the people. It is rooted to the heart, and will 
never yield in any respect to tyrants. It fears not death ; on the contrary, it will give it 
courage to fall upon a glorious tomb, to leave to their children a page in history, and to 
raise an everlasting malediction to all tyrants. 

City of Victoria de Tamaulipas, July 7, 1863. 



Antonio Perales. 

Francisco Blanco. 

Cipriano Guerrero. 

Francisco Velasco. 

Indalscio Martinez. 

Antonio F. Guillen. 

Dario Balandrano. 

Francisco G. Rodriguez. 

Juan A. Velasquez. 

F. de la G. Jimenes. 

Antonio Adame. 

Rafael Aluna. 

Juan Gonzales. 

Camilo Castro. 

Julio Rodriguez. 

Jose Ma. Martinez. 

Ramon Rodriguez Fernandez. 

Antonio Rodriguez. 

Jose Cortina. 

Leandro Ramirez, (padre ) 

Juan N. G. Jimenes. 

Agustin Guillen. 

Fernando Cabanae. 

Fernando de Vargas. 

Refugio Rodriguez 

Jose" Coronado. 

Francisco Jimenes Valdez. 

Lucio Castaneda. 

Noverto Feran. 

Cayetano Aguilera. 

Priciliano F. de Cardonas. 

Agaton Vargas. 

Felipe Feran. 

Antonio Gutierrez. 

Lopez. G. Reyes. 

Erancisco Padilla. 

Fortiz de la Garzi. 

Jose Maria Olvera. 

Fito N. de Careres. 

Rafael Guillen. 

Francisco Carranco. 

Reyes Aguirre. 

Guadalupe Perales. 



E. Balandramo. 
Rafael del Castillo. 
Albino Gomez. 
Fermin Jimenes. 
Juan Teran . 
Gregorio Torres. 
Cosme Villaseiior. 
Manuel Camargo. 
Lorenzo Cortina, (hijo ) 
Tarquino Jimenes. 
Antonio Flores, 
Por Francisco Gueredo. 
Juan Teran. 
Antonio Parreno. 
Florencio Zamudio. 
Ramon Rodriguez Reyes. 
Juan Guerrero. 
Jose Maria Fuentes. 
Rafael Cortez. 
Bernardo Gonzalez. 
Jose Hipolito Sierra. 
Marcelo Vera. 
Andreo Ortega. 
Francisco Abrigo. 
Benito Garcia. 
Ysidro Gamez. 
Tranquilino Arenas. 
Francisco Davila. 
Trinidad de Leon. 
Florentino Chavez. 
Nicolas Huerta. 
Agustin Gonzalez. 
Rafael Linarez. 
Francisco Perales. 
Jose Luis Perez. 
Leandro Valdez. 
Pasenal Valvoa. 
Juan Martinez. 
Antonio Fuentes. 
Vidal Hernandez. 
Desiderio Padron. 
Desiderio Lopez. 
Urverno Garcia. 



352 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS 



Emilio Castro 

Francisco Guiutauillu. 

Jose Martinez 

Conobio Sanchez. 

Trinidad Ramirez. 

Felipe Escandon. 

Juan Gomez. 

Antonio Romero. 

Jose Rodriguez. 

Brigido Hernandez. 

Justos Adrian. 

Julian Castillo. 

Ventura Vasquez. 

Zeferino Rojas. 

Francisco Galvan. 

Manuel Castillo. 

Francisco Caras, (hijo.) 

Felipe Rincon. 

Amador Porras. 

Mateo Espinosa. 

Estevan Garcia. 

Cresencio Ortiz. 

Nieves Martinez. 

Fiturcio Saldana. 

Frebonio Alanis. 

Pilas Soto. 

Ricardo Cortez 

Cayetano Guillen. 

Sisto Mata. 

Lorenzo Malos. 

Jorge Campos. 

Jose Sepulveda. 

Silverio Ramirez. 

Juan Cantor. 

Joaquin Caballero. 

Rafael Arredonde. 

Ponciano Chavez. 

Felipe Torrez. 

Hilario Almaguey. 

Manuel Moron. 

Francisco Lopez. 

Francisco Vasquez. 

Juan F. de Albe. 

Iidefunso Velasquez. 

Antonio Guevara. 

Ramon Guevara. 

Giro Gonzales, (hijo.) 

Dimas Capetillo. 

Francisco H. Flores. 

Bias Bustamante. 

Mauro Fernandez Garzi. 

Francisco Castaneda y Saldana. 

Rafael Romero. 

Andrez Farfan. 

Jose Maria Cordova. 

Luciano Ibarra. 

Pedro Lopez. 

Rosalio Zepeda. 

Gregorio Garcia. 

Vidal Fuentes. 

Modesto Esparsa. 

Felipe Barvosa. 

Guadalupe de la Fuento. 

Antonio Belarde. 

Seberiano Bemandi z. 

Antonio Velasquez. 



Antonio Gonzalez. 
Albino Garcia. 
Damaro Solano. 
Ricado Bustos. 
Rafael Hernandez. 
Felipe Martinez. 
Martin Borrego. 
Bonifacio Vasquez. 
Pedro Mata. 
Francisco Barragan. 
Juan Orta. 
Tomas Moreno. 
Guivino Reyesa. 
Encarnacion Rodriguez. 
Antonio Luna. 
Luiiano Hernandez. 
Anacleto Mendosa. 
Ignacio Gonzalez. 
Macedonio Obregon . 
Braulio Taz. 
Francisco Esparsa. 
Carmen Sanchez. 
Martin Isaguirre, 
Julian Lopez. 
Eusebio Villareal. 
Simon Lopez. 
Pantaleon Guintero. 
Gregorio Alvarado. 
Macedonio Garcia. 
Justo Ramirez. 
Julian Irevino. 
Juan Francisco de Dureiu. 
Julian Torrez. 
Juan de la Cruz. 
Antonio Portales. 
Inocencio Zamora. 
Forivio Chavez. 
Fiburcio Lopez. 
Juan J. Porras. 
Eduvigc Puga. 
Isidoro Mier. 
Francisco Martinez. 
Encarnacion Rangel. 
Agapito Charles. 
Hipolito de Velasco. 
Cenobio Jimencs. 
Leocadio Sanchez. 
Jesus A de la Garza. 
Santiago Gamez, 
Por Mariano Gaspar. 
Ramon Rojas. 
Bernabe Garzi. 
Ramon Rojas. 
Francisco de las Caras 
Cristobal Pisafia. 
Maclorio M. Sierra. 
Francisco Saldana. 
Antonio Furricanday. 
Miguel Guzman. 
Julian Mejia. 
Ascencion Pisafla. 
Manuel Gonaales. 
Ramon Garcia, 
Por Jose" Maria Cardenas. 
Ascencion Pisafia. 
Luciano Gonzales. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 353 



Francisco Balandrano. Ascencion Gil. 

Manuel Moreno. Francisco Ramos. 

Pilar Garcia. Feliciano Luna. 

Jos6 M. Limon. Natividad Cervantes. 

Teofilo Losaya. Margarito Silguero. 

Jesus Gonzalez. Gregorio Guevara. 

Leocardio Hernandez. Brieno Rodriguez 

Lorenzo Pizuelo. Bentura Reyes. 

Maccinnano Peres Enrique Castillo. 

Carlos Barres. Cayetano Rodriguez. 

Juan Reyes. Jose Anjel Sanchez. 
Julian Rivera. 



In this heroic city of Matamoras, its illustrious council having met in extraordinary ses- 
sion on the 2d of June, 1863, Juan Fernandez presiding, being political chief of the northern 
district, and taking into consideration the state in which the republic has been plunged by 
the last events resulting in the occupation of Puebla de Zaragosa, so nobly defended by the 
army of the east, under command of General Jesus Gonzalez Ortega, that as these critical 
moments are precisely the time when true patriotism as well as the determination to de- 
fend, at all costs, the integrity of our national soil, should be shown forth, it being tram- 
pled upon by the forces of the French tyrant ; that this body, representing the city of 
Matamoras, although it has not protested against French intervention, has clearly proved her 
feelings by the blood of her children shed by the invaders ; that now that by all appear- 
ances our national cause has received a terrible blow, is when we should show our strength 
and power, teaching the audacious soldiers of the Emperor how the sons of the Mexican 
republic can die for their liberty. Considering that the actual form of government is the 
most adequate to the advances of the age, and the one chosen by the Mexican people, who, 
like the rest of mankind, have the right to select their mode of organization ; that Benito 
Juarez, now president of the republic, has been made so by the free and unanimous will of 
his fellow-countrymen, knowing how to repay the confidence of his constituents by main- 
taining the constitution and developing the regenerating seeds of reform ; considering all 
this, and by unanimity of votes, the following was resolved : The illustrious council of 
the city of Matamoras protests, in the most solemn manner, against all intervention or 
foreign dominion in the territory of the republic, and especially so against that of the 
French. It is determined to defend and sustain the independence and integrity of the 
soil, and to support, also, the democratic institutions that now govern the republic, and by 
which Benito Juarez, well-deserving of the country, so worthily occupies the presidency. 
It was also resolved to send a copy of this act to the executive of the nation, conveying 
it through the respectable channel of the government of state, and have it published, that 
the people may see, by this act, the sentiments which this corporation has always held, 
confirmed. The political chief and the individuals of the municipal council having signed 
before me, the secretary, the meeting adjourned. 

JUAN FERNANDEZ. 

RAFAEL QULNTERO, First Alcalde. 

SEEVANDO CAVAZOS, Second Alcalde. 

LUIS GUERRERA, Third Alcalde. 

JUAN MANEIRO, First Alderman. 

CARLOS DAN ACHE, Jr., Fifth Alderman. 

SEBASTIAN RODRIGUEZ, Sixth Alderman. 

JOSE MARIA RAMIREZ, First Syndic. 

JOSE MARIA CANTU, Second Syndic. 

FELIPE ZALAZAR, Secretary. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, February 29, 1S64. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to enclose, with this note, several docu- 
ments translated into English, which have come from Mexico, and a synopsis of 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 23 



354 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

which appears at the beginning. These documents reveal the absolute rupture 
between the Mexican clergy, on the one hand, and the invaders, on the other, 
together with their manikins, who form the so-called regency of the empire. It 
is known that the moral support on which the French invasion of Mexico relied 
was the high clergy of the country, who expected to recover through its medi- 
um the possession of their estates declared national and distributed among a 
large number of persons during the administration of the constitutional govern- 
ment of tbat republic, which acted thus for reasons of obvious public conve- 
nience, to which it is now unnecessary to refer. Well, then, the clergy having 
lost their expectations of being restored to the possession of those estates under 
French influence, now withdraws the support which they had lent to the inter- 
vention, which is reduced to the necessity of maintaining itself by the force of 
bayonets alone, and by material assistance from individuals, who, too much com- 
promitted in the farce of government to be able to separate themselves from it, 
have blindly to obey the capricious will of their rulers. These considerations, 
which I take the liberty of merely pointing out, induce me to call your attention 
to the documents which I enclose, and the importance of which I doubt not will 
be duly appreciated by the government of the United States. 

I avail myself of this opportunity of renewing to you, sir, assurances of my 
very distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. "William H. Seward, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



SYNOPSIS OF DOCUMENTS 

1. Protest of the archbishop of Mexico, as one of the regents, agaiDSt cert -tin orders issued 
in the name of the regency by Generals Almonte and Salas, under command of the French 
general-in chief, which orders involve a recognition of the sequestration of the church prop- 
erty, decreed in 1859 by the Juarez government, November 10, 1S63. 

2. Removal of the archbishop from his office as regent of the empire, November 17, 
1863. 

3. Protest of the archbishop against his removal from office as regent of the empire, No- 
vember 17, 1863. 

4. Official note from General Bazaine to the archbishop, acknowledging that the dismissal 
of the archbishop from the regency was made by his orders, November 20. 1863. 

5. Reply of the archbishop to General Bazaine ; he declares his removal from the regency 
null and void, November 28, 1863. 

6. United protest of the archbishop of Mexico, the archbishop of Michoacan, the arch- 
bishop of Guadalajara, the bishop of San Luis Potosi, and the bishop of Oajaca, against the 
circulars and orders issued with reference to the church property by command of the French 
general, and declaring against all who shall execute them, or co-operate in executing them. 
the excommunication decreed by the holy council of Trent ; in this protest they declare 
their situation to be worse than it was under the Juarez government ; December 26, 1863. 

7. Adhesion of the bishops of Leon, Caladro. and Eutancingo. to the foregoing protest, 
December 31, 1863. 

8. Protest of the supreme court of the nation, appointed by the regency, against the cir- 
culars and orders issued in relation to said church property. 

9. Decree of the regents, Almonte and Salas, removing all of the judges and other officers 
of the supreme court, on the ground of their refusal to enforce any of the laws or orders 
regarding the nationalization of the church property. January 2, 1864. 

10. Manifesto of Almonte and Salas. explaining this act, and declaring that they found 
it necessary to conform their action to " French policy," January 2, 1864. 

11. Sharp letter from General Niegre to the archbishop of Mexico, complaining of the 
incendiary character of the publications which are being clandestinely circulated by the 
clergy in the capital, January 16, 1864. 

12. Reply of the archbishop, declaring, categorically, that never was the church so bit- 
terly persecuted, and that he, as chief prelate, finds himself in a worse position than under 
the Juarez government. 

13. Further note from the archbishop to General Niegre, stating what he will address to 
his diocesaners when the restrictions imposed by the French on the press is removed. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 355 

No. 1. 
Protest of the Archbishop of M-xico. 

Your Excellency : Under this date I have communicated to their excellencies Regents 
Generals D. Juan N. Almonte and D. Mariano Salas that of which the following is a copy : 

Your Excellencies : Being unable, in any case, to make a sacrifice of my conscience and 
my dignity, I find myself obliged to address to your excellencies, for your due knowledge, 
and publication in the official paper, the following declarations : 

First. That there having been received by the regency, at the conclusion of its session, 
on Saturday, the 7th instant, a despatch from his excellency General Bazaine, in which 
he insisted that the regency should make a declaration sufficient to expedite in the courts 
and before the judges the course of the affairs to which the communication or notice pub- 
lished in the official paper of the 24th of October last refers, and which requirement is made 
in a manner which should strongly claim the attention of the regency, I immediately made 
known that the affair was, from its nature, one of the greatest gravity and of most import- 
ant consequences, and that it should be treated very cautiously and not hastily, in which 
opinion we were of accord, the subject lying over to be treated of subsequently. 

Second. That desiring to exhaust in this affair every resource which prudence should dic- 
tate, in order that it might be fitly determined, and, if it were possible, with the common 
accord of the regency and of his excellency General Bazaine, I had a conference with his 
excellency in conformity with previous notice, given the evening before to his excellency 
SeSor Almonte, on Sunday, in the afternoon, making known to him all the reasons which, 
in my conception, operated in favor of laying aside the affair of the bills receivable and 
renting of church property, in order that its resolution should be postponed until the arri- 
val of the Emperor, which conference took place in the presence of his excellency Sehor 
Almonte, who sustained several of ury observations. 

Third. That as his excellency Sehor Bazaine did not yield to my arguments, I offered, in 
the presence of the same Sefior Almonte, to send them to him yesterday in writing, in order 
that he might more carefully consider them. 

Fourth. That in compliance with this offer I prepared yesterday, with all precision and 
clearness, the reasons which operated against giving course to the said suits until a supreme 
resolution, dictated by the sovereign, should free from the chance of nullity and of ulterior 
responsibility the temporary determination which might now be given to these affairs. 

Fifth. That the first of my observations demonstrated that only the first notice had been 
issued with the knowledge of the regency, although with my vote against it, but that the 
second appeared afterwards without any legal origin ; and that in this first notice there ap- 
peared no recognition of any right in the unlawful holders of these ■pagans [notes given for 
church property. — Trans.] to avail themselves in their effort to make them good of the 
public tribunals, but only the declaration that the regency would hold as calumnious what- 
ever efforts should tend to preoccupy the public judgment, causing it to be believed that 
the regency had the intention of putting itself forward in an affair whose resolution should 
be left to the sovereign ; and this I stated with my natural frankness, because, in fact, the 
notice exhibited a meaning contrary to that which it had been desired to give it. 

Sixth. That I then proceeded to demonstrate that there could not be given to said notice 
any other legal interpretation than that which it really bore, without deciding, in fact, the 
question which is sought to be postponed, and deciding it by ratifying and legalizing all 
that had been done in the time of Don Benito Juarez ; and that such a decision could not 
be made because it would be anti-Catholic, immoral, scandalous, anti-economical, and im- 
politic with reference to the Pope, to whom it would be a most severe blow ; to his Majesty 
the Emperor of the French, whom it would cause to represent a role diametrically opposed 
to his generous intentions, conciliatory disposition, and frank and loyal conduct ; and to 
his Majesty the Emperor of Mexico, whom it would deprive of all of his resources, multi- 
plying the obstacles before him and reducing him — such were my words — " to the deplor- 
able and painfully fruitless task of gnawing the bleached bones of a corpse," with respect 
to the nation itself, because such measures would cause an immense majority to draw back, 
while they would not attract the opposition for whom condescensions are stimulants and 
concessions arms. 

Seventh. That this communication was already sealed, in order to send it to his excel- 
lency Sehor Bazaine, when, with a surprise and pain which I cannot express, I was informed 
of a document of the following tenor : 

Mexico, November 9, 1863. 

To the Political Prefect : It having arrived to the knowledge of the regency that, not- 
withstanding the notices inserted in No. 14 of the official paper, of which the annexed is a 
copy, certain judges have abstained from taking cognizance of causes which relate to the 



35b* MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

pagares, (notes,) and the leasing or rents of properties which have belonged to the clergy, 
the said regency orders me to say to your excellency that, in conformity with the notice 
referred to, the judges and tribunals should and must take cognizance of all causes to 
which they relate. By their order I communicate the same to you for its publication and 
due compliance. 

F. RAYGOSA, 
Under- Secretary of State and of the Department of Justice. 

From all that has been said it appears — 

First. That there has been dictated, in the name of the regency, an order which the 
regency has not decided upon, for I am a member of the regency, and I have not been 
present nor have I been cited to the deliberation upon such order. 

Second. That this order, as I was afterwards informed by the under-secretary of justice 
when it was already in circulation, was directed to be issued on Sunday, and before I had 
the conference with his excellency Serior Bazaine, in the presence of Senior Almonte, as of 
an affair still pending, there being maintained by their excellencies the regents, my col- 
leagues, towards me, with regard to it, a most studious reserve, whicb I cannot explain, and 
with the aggravating circumstance that the order was issued through the under-secretary 
of the department of justice, which is under my charge, without my having, as is seen 
with reference to it, either any knowledge whatever or even a simple notice on the part of 
this employe. 

In virtue whereof, in compliance with the duty imposed upon me as regent of the empire, 
by the oath which I have taken to seek in all the common good, in order to decline all 
responsibility on my part, whether with respect to his Majesty the Emperor of Mexico, to 
whom I owe all fidelity, whether with respect to the nation which has honored me with its 
confidence, or, finally, with respect to the legitimate interests which may give way under 
the practical consequences of an order which I consider null, I address myself to your ex- 
cellencies by the present note, making these declarations, and making known that as I do 
not consider said order published yesterday by the under-secretary of justice, Serior Don 
Felipe Raygosa, as emanating from the regency. I protest in all form that said order is en- 
tirely null, and against any effects which may flow therefrom. 

God guard your excellencies many years. 

PEL AGIO ANTONIO, 
Archbishop of Mexico, Regent of the Empire. 

Ahchiepiscopal Palace, Mexico, November 10, 1863. 

And I transcribe the same to your excellency for your due knowledge. 
God guard your excellency many years. 

PELAGIO ANTONIO, 
Archbishop of Mexico, Regent of the Empire. 
Archiepiscopal Palace, Mexico, November 10, 1863. 

His Excellency the President of the Supreme Tribunal of the Nation. 



No. 2. 

Imperial Palace, Mexico, 

November 17, 1863. 
Under this date the following communication has been addressed by this department to 
his grace the archbishop of Mexico by order of the regency : 

"Your Grace: Your grace being in open opposition to the regency, as your grace 
declares in your note of the 14th instant that you will no longer be present at their 
meetings whilst the order of the 8th instant is not revoked, as well as the decree of the 
same date, the regency (since the majority of it is its true representative, considering the 
conduct of your grace as well as that of those two gentlemen appointed substitutes who 
have also refused to attend) declares that your grace no longer forms a part of it. By 
order of the same, I have the honor to communicate it to your grace for your information, 
and that his excellency General Bazaine, commander-in-chief of the Franco-Mexican 
army, concurs entirely with said resolution." 
I renew to your grace the assurances, etc. 

By order of the regency I inform your honor that the previously inserted communica- 
tion includes your honor also, in view of your communication of yesterday. 
Your excellency will accept the expression of my consideration and esteem. 

J. M. ARROYO, 
Honorary Sec. of State in charge of the Dep't of Foreign Afairs. 
His Excellency J. Ycnacio Pavon, 

President of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of the Empire. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 357 

No. 3. 
Protect of the Archbishop of Mexico against his dismissal from the Regency. 

Mexico, November 17, 1863. 

Under this date I have said to their excellencies, Generals D. Juan N. Almonte and D. 
Marrano Salas, regents of the empire, the following : 

Your Excellencies: I have just received a note from the secretary of state and 
ecclesiastical affairs, in which he says to me that, finding I am in open opposition to the 
regency, since I have declared in my note of the 14th instant that I would not again meet 
at its sessions until the order of the 8th instant and the decree of the same date had been 
repealed, the regency declare that I have ceased to form a part of it, and the same is com- 
municated to me, with the information that his excellency Sefior Bazaine concurs in the 
said resolution. 

In answer I have to say to your excellencies : 

First. That I cannot be in opposition to the regency, because I form a part of it. 

Second. That I have not said I would not again meet at its sessions until the order and 
decree of the 8th instant had been revoked ; but that as soon as your excellencies your- 
selves revoke what you have done without my concurrence, I would with pleasure meet at 
the sessions of the regency ; two things very different, as may be seen at a glance. 

Third. That I do not consider either your excellencies or General Bazaine have any right 
whatever to remove me from the office of regent of the empire, because General Bazaine, 
even under the intervention, has no power to do this, still less after the explicit, frank, 
loyal, and highly politic declaration of General Forey at the installation of the Mexican 
government ; nor can two individuals of the regency constitute and declare themselves 
the regency, without violating their title to legitimacy, and introducing by this act in the 
constitution of the government an essential change of a nature which can only be done by 
the Assembly of Notables. 

Consequently, I ask your excellencies, in the most formal manner, in use of the right 
conceded to me by article 17 of the decree of the 16th July last, that for the determina- 
tion of this question the Assembly of Notables be called together, this being the indispen- 
sable and legitimate resort, the question being of the essence of the government ; because 
the assembly is the accepted and acknowledged organ of the national will ; because it is 
the recognized source, even by the intervention itself, of the form of government, of 
legality in the country, of the power of the Emperor elect and of the regency itself ; 
because being obliged, according to the law, to refer to the assembly in case of grave 
questions, if it is not therefore convoked for this, for what other can it be called, or how 
can your excellencies explain your refusal to consider yourselves as the national govern- 
ment, or avoid your immense responsibility before God, the nation, and France 1 

I conclude, therefore, protesting against my removal, on the ground of nullity, and 
holding in reserve all the other rights which belong to me as regent and as Mexican. 

All of which I say to your excellencies for your due knowledge and that of General 
Bazaine, if your excellencies think proper to communicate the same to him, the said 
removal having been made in accord with his excellency. 

God guard your excellencies many years 

PELAGIC- ANTONIO, 
Archbishop of Mexico and Regent of the Empire. 



No. 4. 

Official note from General Bazaine to the Archbishop of Mexico. 

Expeditionary Corps of Mexico, Headq'rs of the General-in-Chief, 

Mexico, November 20, 1863. 

Your Grace: I have received the protest which his excellency General Almonte has 
caused to reach me, with reference to the measures which have been adopted by the 
regency to remove your grace from the provisional government. I must make known to your 
grace that this measure was rendered necessary by the attitude of your grace, and it was 
taken with my accord, persuaded, as 1 am, that this was the only me ins of avoiding the 
interruption of the march of events. 

May I be permitted to express the desire that your grace, well inspired, will accept the 
position as it is to-day, and will reject the advice and the suggestions of imprudent friends, 
against whom, notwithstanding, 1 am well decided to take the most rigorous measures 



358 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

that I am authorized to employ under the powers with which I am invested. I rely on 
the abnegation of your grace, and on your devotion to the country, that, at the moment 
I am about setting out for the interior on the work of the pacification and regeneration of 
Mexico, your opposition will not delay the march of the government. 

Your grace will please to receive the expression of my high and respectful consideration. 

BAZAINE, 
General, Commanding -in-Chief . 
Hh Grace the Ap.canrsHOP of Msxrco 



No. 5 
Reply of the Archbishop to General Bazaine. 

Mexico, November 28, 18G3. 

YotjR Excellency : I have not before answered the letter of your excellency, dated the 
20th instant, which I received on the afternoon of the 24th, because I have been obliged 
to avail myself of the time for the despatch of the packet. I do so now by stating what 
it appears to me proper to say to you with reference to each one of the points which in 
your letter relate to me. 

I understand that his excellency Sefior Almonte transmitted to your excellency my 
protest of nullity against the dismissal which his excellency and his excellency Seiior 
Salas, and not the regency, made of me in order to remove me from the provisional 
government. I also understand, from the confirmation which your excellency gives me, 
that this act of dismissal was made with your approval, as I had already been given to 
understand by those gentlemen, and in answer to this point I say here to your excellency, 
as I have said to those gentlemen, and that is, that I do not consider either of those 
gentlemen or your excellency as invested with any authority whatever to remove me, and 
consequently I insist upon my protest of nullity. Your excellency says that this measure 
was required by my attitude, and that you were persuaded that my removal was the only 
means of avoiding the interruption of the march of events. Your excellency will permit 
me to reply to you that my opinion is exactly the contrary- 
First. Because there is not to be found in jurisprudence any law by which the attitude 
of a public functionary, who legally fills his office, who defends the principles of justice, 
who proceeds in everything in conformity with the law, and who appeals to the substantial 
forms of legality for the validity of his acts, can be made the ground for such a step as his 
removal from office by other funtionaries who are his equals in position and authority, and 
who are incompetent not only to remove him, but even to call him to account or to judge 
him. 

Second. Because this removal, far from facilitating, is just what is calculated to delay 
the march of events ; because, say what you will, it implies the substitution of de facto for 
de jure in the question of legitimacy, and the destruction of the government constituted 
on the 25th of June last by the vote of the representatives of the nation, and accepted by 
the general-in- chief of the expeditionary army, who expressly declared that he placed in 
the hands, not of two, but of the three provisional chiefs of the nation, the powers which 
circumstances had intrusted to him for the benefit of the nation itself ; and your 
excellency will see that if these powers are placed in their hands they do not remain in 
yours, and, consequently, that this government was terminated from the day of my 
removal, and that what exists to-day may be whatever you wish, but it Mill not be the 
government then announced by General Forey to the Mexican people, to France, and to the 
world. 

Third. That not only cau it not be said that my removal was the only means, but that 
there being many, none of them were put in practice, and the National Assembly being in 
existence, and the only competeut means of giving a legal and national sanction to any 
resolution, not to apply to it, notwithstanding my formal petition in conformity with law, 
was to give a death blow to the government of the country. 

Your excellency continues, expressing your desire that I will accept the situation as it is, 
and will repel the counsels and suggestions of imprudent friends, against whom your 
excellency is resolved a to take the most rigorous measures in use of the powers with which 
you are invested. With reference to tin- first, I have to say to your excellency that I do 
not understand the exact meaning which you place upou the words " accept the position ;" 
but as accepting is consenting and admitting, I have to say to your excellency that I have 
not, and I never will, a^ree to any of the steps that have been taken against the rights I 
have defended ; but that, on the contrary, I insist upon all and each one of my protests. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 359 

If these words have a signification strictly personal, I have to say, with all frankness, that 
I have no aspirations of a personal character ; that I entered the regency, not for pleasure, 
but to labor, and to sacrifice myself for the public good, and yielding to suggestions of the 
most elevated character. If, finally, they mean that I, in my character of archbishop, 
have to remain silent and impassible in view of these attacks upon the supreme authority 
of the church, its right to lead and its immunities, I have to say, with all frankness, that 
neither myself nor my illustrious brethren can maintain silence without doing violence to 
our consciences, and that we are disposed to suffer everything rather than prove wanting 
in the execution of such holy duties when the occasion shall arrive. 

In the second place, I should say to your excellency, with the same ingenuousness, 
whoever may be those imprudent friends to whom your excellency refers, I am the sole and 
only one responsible for my acts. Your excellency concludes by counting upon my abnega- 
tion and my devotion to the country, that at the moment your excellency is leaving for 
the interior to continue the work of pacification I will not by my opposition interrupt the 
march of events. To this I answer, in conclusion, that your excellency can be sure that, 
while I am determined to defend the right, I shall not be the one to pass the bounds of a 
true prudence by any step contrary to the duties it imposes upon me at the times when it 
should be observed. 

Your excellency will be pleased to accept the expression of my attentive consideration 
and very distinguished appreciation. 

God guard your excellency many years. 

PELAGIO ANTONIO, 

Archbishop of Mexico. 

His Excellency General Bazaine, 



No. 6. 

United protest af all the prelates of Mexico. 

Your Excellencies: Scarcely arrived in the bosom of our country, after the long and 
painful banishment to which we had been condemned by the government which emanated 
from the Plan of Ayutla, not because we had made any kind of partisan political opposi- 
tion — a thing which the Mexican Episcopacy have been very far from doing — but solelyon 
account of the conscientious and canonical defence we had made of the doctrines of the 
faith, the rights of religion, the principles of Christian morals, and of the prescriptions of 
the Holy Catholic Church ; returning with the high and noble hope that we had been led 
to conceive, on the one hand by the intimations made at various times to the Holy Father, 
on the part of the Emperor of the French, that the bishops who had been banished should 
return to Mexico, and on the other by the highly significant fact that one of the bishops 
had been named a member of the executive power and afterwards of the regency ; and, 
finally, by the solemn obligation which the said legency contracted with the church and 
the nation in its manifesto not to decide any of the ecclesiastical questions except in accord 
with the Holy Apostolic See ; returning with the c msoling hope of being able to dedicate 
our latest days in peace, and under the guarantee of a Catholic government, the restorer 
of sound principle-, to the re-establishment of religion and of morals, and to the reform 
of society, through the means of our pastoral labors, we have been overwhelmed with a 
terrible and grievous surprise by encountering a situation in every respect exactly equal to 
that which preceded our banishment, in all that relates to the church, and even worse, 
by reason of the strange position in which we, as prelates, find ourselves placed. 

The opposition, as well founded as inutile, which was made by the illustrious Archbishop 
of Mexico, in his quality of regent, to the communications or notices which were published 
in the official paper of the 24th of October last, and which placed in legal course the pay- 
ments emanating from the appropriation of ecclesiastical property and the collection of 
rents of houses taken from the church, and expedited the continuance of the works of 
alteration upon the same, which has been suspended ; the decision taken by your excellen- 
cies alone, without the concurrence of the other regent, that through the sub- secretary of 
justice the judges and tribunals should be informed that they should have and that they 
must take cognizance of all causes arising under the affairs to which the said notices l'efer ; 
the insistance of your excellencies in this resolution, notwithstanding the protest of nullity 
addressed to yon on the following day by his excellency Senor Labastida, in his character 
of regent ; the formal dismissal of the illustrious archbishop from his charge of regent, 
made by your excellencies in concurrence with his excellency General Bazaine ; the studious 
omission which has been made of the church in certain measures regarding the property of 
public chaiities ; the resistance to the return to the religious societies of the part not yet 



360 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

sold of their convents, and held in lots by the government ; the indifference with which 
it has been seen that these nuns have been reduced to the utmost poverty, without permit- 
ting them to receive even the pitiful portion which had been left to them by the despoiling 
government ; various particular acts, which brevity will not permit us to refer to, but 
which show a decided determination to protect the pretended rights created by the so- 
called laws of reform ; and, finally, the circular issued by the sub-secretary of justice, on 
the 15th instant, at the instance of his excellency Seflor Bazaine, removing all obstacles, 
and declaring that there is no legal impediment to the exercise of whatever rights of action 
which were held with respect to the property called clergy property, on the arrival of the 
French intervention in the country — all these acts manifest with the most weighty evi- 
dence that the Holy Catholic Church in Mexico suffers to-day, at the hands of the govern- 
ment which actually exists in the capital, a compulsion in its most holy rights and in its 
cononical liberties entirely equal to that which it suffered when the authorities emanating 
from the Plan of Ayutla were in power, because such compulsion consists, not in the form 
of government, nor in the persons of those who compose it, but in the character and im- 
portance of its acts; and those of your excellency's tend to expedite the consummation of 
the work which those authorities began, for you declare in full force the rights and actions 
which spring from the sacrilegious and illegal laws, and from the acts committed against 
the immunity of the church by said authorities, and even in the same language, for the 
same odious expression is now used which was then employed to designate the ecclesiastical 
property. 

Unhappy would to-day be the evils which the church suffers were they no more than 
these ; but> by a misfortune which we can never sufficiently deplore, there are peculiar cir- 
cumstances which render still worse than them the situation of the church to-day in Mexico, 
and which increase its giief to an extraordinary degree. 

Then the government frankly manifested its principles. It appeared to the view of all 
this Catholic people in the character of an opposition armed with power against religion 
and the church ; and the latter, as a victim immolated by the government, defended itself 
heroically, suffering the consequences of a terrible persecution, and perishing nobly for the 
holy cause of justice. To-day's government inaugurates itself with professions eminently 
religious and moral, after the French army bad destroyed, in the capital, that of Juarez, 
and it presents itself before the Mexican people as the protector of its faith, of its religion, 
of the church, and of the priesthood. Then we were banished ; to-day we are invited and 
received with expressions of consideration, creating by this means among the people a feel- 
ing of confidence as regards their tenderest affections, their dearest interests. Then the 
prelates leaving our country carried with them the hope that the first political change 
which should take place would bring with it a complete moral and religious restoration. 
To-day, leturning after such a change to be present at the immolation of all our principles, 
the consummation of the ruin of the church, we have received a blow such as is only 
received at the death of all human hope. Then the church had only one enemy — the 
government that persecuted it. To-day it has two — that same government which still 
lives in the country, which still has resources of its own ; an army that contends hand to 
hand for every foot of ground, and that counts upon the aid of its principles and interests 
in the enemy's camp and in the capital — an enemy whose first occupation it is to carry into 
effect the destructive plans of its opponent in religious and moral affairs Then we received 
the blow from the hand of an open enemy ; to-day we are attacked by those who called 
themselves friends of the church aud protectors of its libeities. Then the attack and the 
defence did not pass beyond strictly national bounds ; to-day we have to lament the char- 
acter which the intervention has given to these attacks, aud that from it have come the 
exigencies which have obliged your excellencies to so proceed. Then we verified our 
episcopal acts simply as bishops; to-day we have to make our defence passive and legal, 
because we cannot pass that limit also as Mexicans. Then, notwithstanding the restrictions 
imposed by the laws of the press, we could publish our protests and our pastorals to the 
people, because there existed no other restraints than such as would result from the incon- 
veniences of a trial. To-day the press is hound in such a manner that it is open only to 
those who favor the intervention, for there is not only the responsibility consequent upon 
a very strict law, hut also in denial of the very epoch itself, to sty nothing more, even 
previous censorship. The publication of a pontifical allocution, of an edifying and moral 
retraction, and of any paragraph copied from abroad in which allusion is made to the 
authority of the Holy Father with respect to the ecclesiastical questions of this country, 
are the subjects of formal admonitions to the press, and of prohibitions to insert in the 
future this class of articles, at the same time that auti-ecclesiastical, and, at some times, 
even scandalous doctrines, pass unnotice 1 

It is lor these reasons that, speaking oi the situation in which circumstauces have now 
placed us. we eonsidei it worse than before. 

The episcopacy of Mexico, considering its responsibility, save by the manifestations made 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 361 

by his excellency Seilor Labastida, and by certain steps which have been taken by other 
prelates with reference to your excellencies, had remained silent up to the present time, 
in order that it might not be believed that it proceeded with precipitation or lack of pru- 
dence. But to-day, when affairs have reached their utmost extreme — to-day, when even 
the palliatives and reserve with which the first dispositions appeared have been cast aside — 
to-day, when the instance of a French subject has been sufficient to induce the declaration that 
all the rights and actions springing from the despoilment of the church property still exist in all 
their force and vigor — to-day, when, by this sole act, all reservation of these affairs for the deci- 
sion of the government which shall be definitely established in the country has ceased, our 
silence would no longer be excusable ; it would conceal the wrongs we suffer, and cause us 
to appear, in a certain measure, as accomplices, a position which it is our duty to repel at 
all hazards, in the name of the rights of religion, the voice of conscience, and love of our 
country. 

What shall we say to your excellencies in this exposition, after so much that ourselves 
and our predecessors have said at different times against these claims and pretended rights 
that your excellencies have just again placed in vigor and reinvested with legal force by 
your circular of the 15th instant? What can we demonstrate now that is not already 
demonstrated, or now set forth that will be new to any Mexican ordinarily well informed 
as to our political history ? What arguments, however specious they may be, can now be 
adduced by the defenders of these sacrilegious laws of spoliation that have not been already 
refuted and utterly demolished, either by the bishops, the ecclesiastical authorities, or the 
Catholic press? If the law of the 11th of January, 1847, which took possession of the 
ecclesiastical property only to the extent of fifteen millions, was considered by the illus- 
trious Senor Portugal — that prelate as wise as illustrious — as a law without force, being in 
manifest opposition to the will of the people, and impossible of execution with justice from 
its repugnance to the principles of sound morality, as the inexhaustible fountain of terrible 
misfortunes for the church and society, as a law violative of the rights and illegal as against 
the immunities of the church, not less than against its canonical and even civil liberties, 
and, besides, as an anti-economical law, immoral and incendiary, what can we now say with 
reference to those laws, the pretended claims and rights under which your excellencies have 
revived by your circular of the 15th instant ? If that virtuous prelate, with the liberty 
which belongs to a truly apostolic zeal, could not reconcile his Catholic professions with 
the approbation and execution of such laws, and who supposed, as the indispensable condi- 
tion of their origin, either the grossest ignorance of the principles of religion, or its positive 
abjuration and a species of apostasy, what shall we say when we refer to laws which 
surpass infinitely, under every aspect, in arbitrariness, tyranny, immorality, violence, dis- 
asters, and ruin, those which then led to the complaints and protests of the former prelate 
of Michoacan? 

Nothing remains to us, therefore, to say, after so much that has already been said, and 
still less when addressing ourselves to persons so involved in the course of events, as well 
as penetrated, for so we believe, with the illegal, ruinous, unpopular, and sacrilegious 
character of the laws so pompously called laws of reform, as your excellencies 

But we cannot do less, your excellencies, than make known to you the utter surprise 
and confusion into which we have been plunged by the said circulars, not merely because 
they have come from your excellencies, whose religious sentiments have never been placed 
in doubt, not merely from their character and importance, but more particularly because 
we cannot find any plausible reason — not to justify them, for that is impossible — but that 
could at least excuse them on the ground of public convenience. 

That Sefior Juarez with his party should enact such laws, and should work unceasingly 
to carry them into effect, this we can well conceive, as well as the energetic opposition of 
the prelates, and the conscientious resistance of all true Catholics; but that a government 
under the protection of France, (not as a conqueror, not as attempting to overthrow our 
independence, but as respecting it, and offering to save it, and instructing its commander- 
in-chief not to interfere with the freedom of its acts ) which has just been. established as 
the government of a nation in virtue of a vote of a council of notables, and in opposition 
to the government of Sefior Juarez, that such a government should work for the laws which 
this latter has dictated, these being, as they are, the essential and sole ciuse of the division 
among the Mexicans, and of the civil wir, this we cmuot understand. 

What political advantages can be derived from such a course? Aside from those which 
will spring from the influence of the holders and immoral speculators who availei them- 
selves of the vast riches of the church, and win are very few comp ,red with the immense 
majority of the Mexican nation who detest such speculations, certainly none. 

We well know that to present such proceedings in a favorable light a thousand plausible 
excuses are invented, principally to win over by surprise the court of France, which lacks 
the data which is indispensable* to practically judge of the state of society here. But the 
truth will not be long in appearing in its true light, and to the scandal of the world it will 
be known that the immense majority of the Mexicans are essentially Catholic, that they 



362 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

respect the laws of God and of their church, that they bewail the attacks received from 
the government of Ayutla, and that if they manifested themselves in favor of the inter- 
vention, it was because it presented itself as their protector, not against the persons — for 
that would be but a childish jest — but against the acts of the government of Seflor Juarez. 
But the attitude that the intervention to-day takes by such dispositions has transformed its 
triumphs to victories over the party oppressed, for it gives force and vigor to the claims 
and rights emanating from such acts. The impartiality and policy -with which it presented 
itself and pretends to justify its acts consists, therefore, solely in the sterile protest of the 
party conquered by arms, but triumphant in its principles, and that without ceding a single 
hair in its opposition to France, and in the complete ruin, not only of a respectable politi- 
cal party — and this would be much and unjustifiable, supposing the programme was one 
of impartiality — but also of the nation in its moral integrity. Being a Catholic people, 
the Mexicans must consider as enemies all who attack their faith and their religious and 
moral interests ; that supposing the anti-Catholic party does not yield, but, on the con- 
trary, is strengthened by such concessions, and that the rest of the nation considers itself 
oppressed, the intervention may have physical force in the country, but moral, political, 
and national it will have none ; that it will have no support but that of its arms, and that, 
while it might have become the possessor of the gratitude of a people, favoring them in 
what they hold to be most valuable and sacred, it has been left alone between an armed 
party who combats it, and a people unarmed and helpless who fear it. 

A position such as this, however much it may be covered up or disguised, cannot be ex- 
cused, and particularly when taking into consideration the spirit of the instructions given by 
the Emperor to his excellency General Forey. 

Whatever may be the elements upon which France may count, it is clear that it did not 
enter into the mind of the Emperor to establish an order of things here separate and inde- 
pendent from the will and the great interests of the Mexican people ; and this is, without 
doubt, the motive of those instructions, at once so circumspect and in every respect so deli- 
cate as those given to his excellency General Bazaine by the minister of foreign affairs, in 
the communication of the 17th of August last, which has been published in the journals 
of the capital. 

It is there declared terminantly that nothing violent or arbitrary will be attempted or 
sought, not even special advantages over other nations ; there the acts of the government 
of Seflor Juarez aie qualified as iniquitous, and the situation which that government cre- 
ated is regarded as the culminating point of dissolution ; there it is declared that France, 
triumphant by virtue of its good intentions towards our country, rejects all idea of sub- 
stituting its influence for the free determinations of the country ; there the authority of 
the notables is considered as of great weight and authority ; there the general-in-chief is 
prohibited from substituting his initiative for that of the government; there the principle 
of impartiality is proclaimed, but only as regards the passions, the vices, and the bastard 
interests of the parties, and where principles are involved. This is a chart full of intelli- 
gence, of reason, and of hope. Will it be possible to find here the justification for what 
is now passing, the support that is pretended, the reason of the resolves that have been 
taken? 

When his excellency General Forey issued his manifesto to the nation, declaring before 
its face that if it were possible to give any recognition whatever to those who had acquired 
church property, fraudulent contracts should not be sustained, and in consonance with 
this, issued his decree of the 22d of May, he gave evidence of impartiality and of equity. 
But all this has disappeared by the issuance of the notices or communications of the 24th 
of October, because these, placing in legal course, without auy restriction whatever, the 
notes given for church property, and expediting the suits for collection of rents, without 
the requisite of previous qualification, has destroyed entirely the moral guarantees which 
the manifesto and decrees before cited had given. Still, these notices, themselves estab- 
lishing in principle that the measure was transitory, that it did not imply the solution of 
the principal questions, nor the definite legitimization of any right — because this remained 
reserved to the sovereign — left alive the hopes, although very feeble, that his excellency 
Seflor Forey had caused us to conceive, and, above all, facilitated up to a certain point in 
the critical situation of the country the resignation of the faithful and the prudence of the 
pastors. But to-day, after the circular of the loth inst int. there is an end to the reign of 
principles, the empire of right, the encouragement of hope, contideuce in the situation, 
and, in fine, of all promises. A step has been taken so grave that perhaps it would not 
have been taken even by the cabinet of the Tuileries. 

And what has been the cause .' What powerful motive has precipitated this crisis? 
Perhaps the supreme interests of society.' Perhaps an extreme necessity, a sudden emer- 
gency, a tempest which could not be conjured by any other means? No! it was the mosl 
trifling cause, the most insignificant in regard to the effect. 

The complaint of a French subject, and the request of the general -in chief made to your 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 363 

excellencies by virtue of this complaint. This is the cause of all ; this is what Mexico has 
to hope from the impartiality that was promised, and from the/ non-interference of that 
chief in order to leave the government free in its acts ; this is the melancholy synopsis of 
the situation in which the Mexican church to-day finds itself. 

Your excellencies, turning a glance backwards over the dispositions and acts to which we 
have referred, should determine to apply the remedy, which only requires from your excel- 
lencies a firm and resolute will. We ourselves ask it, with the most pressing urgency, in 
the name of religion, of morality, of our country, by the obligation which we have to de- 
fend the rights of the first, to guard the prescriptions of the second, and to speak under 
the legitimate inspiration of the third. We ask it in compliance with our most sacred 
duty as prelates of the church and pastors of the flock of Jesus Christ. We ask it with 
the confidence which is inspired by the religious and patriotic sentiments of your excel- 
lencies, and the lofty and generous views that the French government has so clearly mani- 
fested in its instructions to the two chiefs of the army in Mexico. We therefore hope that 
these circulars will be annulled, that this violence they inflict upon us will cease, and that 
all proceedings will be suspended in these affairs, which, from their character, their import- 
ance, the nature of Ihe situation, and even from the understanding with the French 
government, should be postponed until they can have a solution capable of placing in 
harmony conscience and legitimate interests ; a solution canonical and civil ; a solution in 
which shall concur the spiritual and the temporal sovereigns; a solution upon which the hopes 
of religion and of the country now hang dependent. 

But if, unfortunately, the said circulars are to remain in force, we, as prelates of the 
Mexican church, in the use of our canonical faculties, and in compliance with our duties, 
protest in the most solemn form against the said circulars and their effects. We hold the 
rights of the church reserved from the inability and nullity so protested of said circulars. 
We reproduce and now expressly apply our manifestation of the 30th August, 1859, of 
which we enclose to your excellencies four copies, issued by reason of the laws of the 12th, 
13th, and 23d of July of that year, decreed by Seiior Juarez, in Vera Cruz, the claims and 
rights under which your excellencies revive by your circular of the 15th instant, and in 
consonance with what we then set forth, we conclude this exposition, protesting our respect, 
with the following declarations: 

First. That it is not lawful to obey either the communications of the 24th of October, 
the circulars of the 9th of November and the 15th instant, nor any disposition whatever 
of those that tend to the execution of the said decrees of Sefior Juarez, nor to co-operate in 
the compliance therewith. 

Second. That neither that government nor any government, whatever it may be, has any 
authority to take possession of the property of the church ; that, therefore, as well the 
decrees of that government as the notices and circulars issued by order of your excellencies, 
involve an illegal and tyrannical disposition of the most sacred property, and are subject to 
the censures of the holy church, and especially to the excommunication fulminated by the 
Holy Council of Trent, in chapter 1 1 of session 22 cle reformatione. In consequence, there 
are comprehended in this canonical penalty not only the authors and executors of the de- 
crees, notices, and circulars aforesaid, but also all those who in any way co-oper<ite or have 
co-operated towards their fulfilment. 

Third. That the political change which has taken place in Mexico in consequence of the 
intervention has not altered or lessened in any respect the obligations and moral and 
canonical responsibilities to which those of whom we have just spoken are subject, and that 
therefore all of our protests, circulars, and diocesan orders, issued by reason of the so- 
called constitution of laws and reform, remain in all their force and vigor, and are appli- 
cable to the notices and circulars of your excellencies already mentioned, and to whatever 
other dispositions of your excellencies that tend to place in execution the laws, decrees, 
and acts to which our canonical protests said manifestation, circular, and diocesan orders 
refer. 

Those incurring the censure of the said canon, in virtue either of the law of the 25th 
of July, 1856, of the decrees published in Vera Cruz by Senor Juarez in July, 1859, or 
afterwards in Mexico, of the communications and circulars issued by order of your excel- 
lencies, or of the disposition or orders of whatever authority or person, public or private — 
that is to say, the authors, executors, or co-operators in the despoliation of the church in 
its property, lands, rents, possessions, claims, rights, temples, objects contained therein 
destined to public worship, &c, are strictly obliged to make restitution and reparation for 
their scandalous crime ; and they cannot be absolved, not even at the point of death, if 
they do not comply with the conditions established by the church and set forth in our cir- 
culars and diocesan decrees aforesaid. 

Such are, your excellencies, the declarations and protests, which, in the unhappy case 
that our petition is not attended to, and the notices of the 24th of October and the circu- 
lars of the 9th November and 15th December remain in force, we shall have to make, and 



364 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

now, in fact, do make, not from a spirit of partisan opposition, which we are very far from 
feeling, but solely to comply with our duty. 

Hard it is to find ourselves placed in this situation, even if we were treatiDg of a national 
government and bitterly hostile. What is it, therefore, when the authorities in question 
have been inaugurated as protectors and have presented themselves as friends? 

But, your excellencies can believe us, we cannot keep silence without making ourselves 
criminals by this silence before the strict justice of that government before whose tribunal 
we shall have to appear at the end of a life which is rapidly escaping. When these terrible 
occasions present themselves which call for the exercise of our pastoral charge, when we 
see that a soul lost through our silence will call down upon ourselves the same perdition, 
we tremble with terror. Not even evident knowledge of the inutility of our expostula- 
tions and protests would excuse us before God. See the fearful confirmation of this truth 
which the Holy Spirit gives us in chapter iii, verses 18 and 19, of Ezekiel : " When I say 
unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to 
warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in 
his iniquity, but his blood or perdition will I require at thine hand. Yet, if thou warn 
the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die 
in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul." 

We conclude, therefore, protesting to your excellencies, with this unhappy motive, our 
attentive consideration and distinguished estimation. 
God guard your excellencies many years. 

PEL AGIO A. , Archbishop of Mexico. 

CLEMEHTE DE J., Archbishop of Michoacan. 

PEDRO, Archbishop of Guadalajara. 

PEDRO, Bishop of San Luis Pctosi. 

JOSE MARIA, Bishop of Oojaca. 

Their Excellencies Generals Don Juan L. Almonte and Don Jose M. De Salas, Regents of 

the Empire. 
Mexico, December 26, 1863. 



No. 7. 

Your Excellencies the Regents : 

The two first named of us, having been absent from the capital, have learned upon our 
return that your excellencies issued a circular, dated 15th of the present month, in which 
some of the impious and fatal orders emanated from the so-called reform laws, against 
which the venerable allocutions of our holy father, the vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
directly operate, have been left in full force ; and all the energetic protests of the illustri- 
ous Mexican episcopate, against which also, not for a vile selfish interest, but for conscien- 
tious motives, the respectable clergy of the nation have contended with such unconquera- 
ble valor, as well as ourselves personally, who have been persecuted and imprisoned, and 
finally, against which the public opinion of the whole country has manifestedly pronounced. 
But we have seen with great satisfaction at the same time the just protest, which said 
episcopate, on returning from banishment so gloriously suffered for the cause of the church, 
has addressed to your excellencies. We, who are honored more than we deserve, by form- 
ing part of the enlightened firm and compact body of Mexican prelates, constrained by our 
conscience and our duty, and guided only by a true Catholic spirit, make ours and do sub- 
scribe to all and every protest, circular, and orders, issued formerly by the venerable Mex- 
ican episcopate against the nefarious and heinous work of the so-called reform, which has 
overwhelmed our beloved country with every species of evil. 

Your excellencies themselves are unexceptional witnesses that the sole and only motive 
the country has had in accepting willingly the French intervention, the empire, and regency, 
has been the feeling, or rather the profound runted attachment to Catholic sm, whose 
saving principles and grave interests the nation desires to save at any saciirice, and which 
it had every reason to believe could have been attained by those means. 

May Divine Providence grant the pious and just wishes of the episcopate, the clergy, and 
the immense majority of Mexicans, who Bee with the utmost sorrow their beloved country 
and religion in danger. 

Your excellencies will please to accept the assurances of our respect and personal esteem. 

Mexico. December 31st, 1863. 

D'R JOSE MARIA DIEZ DE SOLLANO, Bishop of Leon. 

FRANCISCO DE LA C. RAMIREZ, Bishop of Caladro, Apostolic Vicar of Tamaulipas. 

D'R JUAN B. ORMACHEA, Bishop elect of Tulancingo. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 365 



No. 8. 

Froted of Supreme Tribunal. 

The necessity, without exaggeration painful, hut unavoidable, presents itself again before 
this supreme tribunal to address itself to that sub-secretaryship, explaining the difficulties 
there are to carry out the measures dictated by it ; the tribunal alludes to the circular of 
the 15th instant, drawn by petition of his excelleucy General Bazaine, by which it is de- 
clared that "there is no legal obstacle to prevent the exercise of any right and acts which 
might be had in regard to the property called of the clergy, on the arrival of the French in 
tervention to the nation." 

The circular of the 9th of November upon the same subject, although noc so extensive 
in its effects, had already obliged the tribunal to lay open the reasons given in its official 
communication of the 10th of the same, and since then announced that if the legal diffi- 
culty disappeared, not there set forth, the same disposition being reproduced, the case 
would then present itself, in which the interested parties would proceed according to the 
inspiration of their own conscience. 

Without the legal difficulty, which the circular of the 9th November had been removed 
in that of the 15th instant, the conscientious case referred to has presented itself, because 
the tribunal cannot, either individually or collectively, keep silent upon the justness of the 
orders contained in said circulars, after the judgment pronounced upon them by the worthy 
members of the Mexican episcopate, residing at present in this capital. 

The tribunal has official knowledge of the exposition, declarations, and protests which 
were addressed on the 26th of the present month by the said most reverend prelates to 
the excellencies the regents, Generals Juan N. Almonte and Jose Mariano de Salas, and in 
that document, which is a new testimony added to other thousands of the same kind, that 
the defence of the rights of the church involves that of nations, families, and individuals, 
is lost when, under religious and political aspects, it is offered to demonstrate the injustice 
and inconvenience of putting in vigor the iniquitous legislation called by antiphrasis 
reform. 

No one can doubt the glorious liberty which all Catholics have to oppose their passive 
resistance to the attacks directed against God's church. We, members of the supreme tri- 
bunal of justice of the empire, belong to it, and preserve now the same liberty that we 
enjoyed in the fatal days when the administration of the reform ruled, bringing upon 
some violent persecutions, and plunging those who escaped best into complete obscurity 
and misery. 

But having to speak as the superior tribunal of the empire must do, it will enter into 
certain considerations, casting a retrospective glance upon our public lights, upon that 
right in which the operations of all powers have been based, upon which the decisions of 
the tribunals have been constantly given, and which has been a guiding rule to every 
individual in the affairs of their public and private life. Everything in Mexico is explained 
by Catholic principles, from the conquest to the independence, and from the independence 
to the intervention; and without that principle nothing in it can be explained, the doors 
of future welfare, to which it aspires, being completely closed. 

Everybody knows that the immense idea of Columbus would have remained fruitless in 
his brain if the immortal Ysabelle, of Castile, had not comprehended it ; but everybody 
knows also that that queen, model of crowned heads, the first thing that she proposed to 
herself in the discoveries was to establish religious principles, and the development of that 
thought was the principal moving power of her operations upon the territories that were 
first discovered on this continent. Her successors followed the very same principles, either 
to proceed in making further conquests, or to protect the inhabitants from the violence of 
the conquerors, so that to conquer, or to govern with justice and equity those conquered, 
we have Catholic principles exercising their eminently tutelar influence. 

How Spanish monarchs of Austrian dynasty understood Catholic principles history tells 
us, and our legislation proclaims it at every step. It was the lot of those sovereigns, 
especially the two first, Emperor Charles the V and King Phillip the II, to govern, whilst 
Europe was shaken by the frightful religious war stirred up by Protestantism; they embraced 
the Catholic cause, and while the Protestants endeavored to attack the church in its dog- 
mas, principles, immunities, and all that it possessed and possesses now, they followed 
entirely an opposite course in Spain and the Americas. By simply stating this fact, and 
observing that the orders of the Holy Council of Trent were admitted and respected, it 
proves that in Spain and America the church preserved untouched its canonical legislation. 

Later Spanish kings continued the same line of conduct, even including those of the 
Bourbon dynasty, who showed some slight signs of being partisans of that doctrine, which 
ended in the French revolution ; aud precisely owing to that respect to the church, that 
liberty left to its beneficent decision, and guaranteed by the laws and acts of the author- 



366 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

ities, it is explained how, while in Europe iniquitous spoliations of riches accumulated in 
former ages were committed in Mexico and the other Americas belonging to Spain, they 
accumulated them to invest in proper objects, all in accordance with canonical legislation, 
especially protected by civil laws, without allowing any one for a moment to suppose that 
those riches, sacred in every way, would one day become the object of criminal cupidity 
of a few, who, to despoil its legitimate and benevolent owner, would refuse to give, not 
only the title of possession, but even the right to acquire that title, and that such iniquity, 
such absurdity, should take the haughty and ostentatious name of reform, civilization, and 
progress. It follows from these observations that at every step, as it is proved by our his- 
tory, our code of laws, and by our public records, that during the whole time that Mexico 
was under the dominion of Spain, canonic legislation, supported by civil one, ruled supreme 
throughout the country ; that the Mexican church was governed by it for the acquirement 
of its prosperity, its preservation, and protection ; that the same legislation was applied by 
the tribunals, and formed part of the public laws of the country. 

After the lapse of three centuries of continued, constant, uniform, and never contra- 
dicted practise of those laws, came the great event of independence, and while we mention 
it, it is also necessary that we should mention one of the principal causes which was pre- 
dominant during the war, and which became the terminating one of the result. In both 
epochs, the fear that the cause of religion should be endangered if it continued to depend 
upon its former metropolis, was one of the principal chapters which caused the proclama- 
tion of independence, but particularly in the latter the idea is carried out with greater 
precision, making the Roman Catholic and apostolic religion the first of the three guaran- 
tees given in the immemorable Plan of Yguala. 

We all know T why such word was placed in said plan, and what it was intended to sig- 
nify. It was done because the constitutional Spanish courts by their acts, and several of 
its deputies by their discourses, commenced attacking the Catholic church, not in its dog- 
mas, because, although it is the true mark aimed at, modern tactics only commence by 
wounding its discipline. It was against that then that the Spanish courts made their 
assaults ; but Mexico, who had seen the Catholic church teaching freely its dogmas for 
three centuries, and exercising its discipline, Mexico — who, under the maternal rule of that 
church, had lived for so long a period in tranquillity and happiness, did not wish to see it 
endangered, and her children sought to unite with its political independence that of 
religious incolumity. Consequently, it was not the intention in these plans of independ- 
ence, nor in the text of them, to attack that canonical legislation, by virtue of which the 
church holds its property, but, on the contrary, to prevent all that could possibly menace 
the same and give it additional support. The tribunals had the same understanding as the 
nation, and far from making any alteration by that great event, that part of our public 
laws received an additional confirmation of extraordinary solemnity in its form. 

After this came a fatal succession of a series of political constitutions in the midst of our 
international dissensions. We have the constitution of 1824, one of 1837, another of 
1843, and an act of reforms of 1847, and in all those codes of law the profession of the 
Catholic, apostolic, and Komish religion is textually consigned by the Mexican nation, by 
which it is of course understood that the church is as much mistress of her discipline as 
she is essentially of her dogmas, and that the nation protects it as it is, that is to say, 
according to its canons. The consequence of this is, that the public law 7 s of the nation 
are in harmony with all political constitutions, except that of 1857, as regards the property 
of the church by canonical legislation. 

It is true that during that period many attacks have been made against the church, and 
not few have been the orders issued against its rights ; but it is true, also, that almost 
always these triumphed at last ; for, far from considering the first as coming from a legal 
source, they were held for what they really were, anti-constitutional and illegitimate, the 
principles of that part of our public laws not suffering any alteration whatever, 

The first attack made by the few enemies that the Catholic church has in Mexico, to 
carry out the iniquitous spoliation meditated by them for years back, took place after the 
triumph of the revolution of Ayutla by those who were then lords of public adminis- 
tration ; but all the nation impugned the novelties introduced by the reformists to that 
degree that the principal author of the victorious revolution, the unfortunate Don Yguacio 
Comonfort, was obliged to change his ground in December, 1857. 

The spurious interests created by the legislation emanated from the plan of Ayutla were 
never surrendered by that of the "Ciudadela," and then commenced the disastrous cam- 
paign by which all the nation fighting on one side to preserve its social constitution, (which 
is a religious one,) and on the other by the innovators awaking the ferocious instincts of 
the vulgar masses to spoliation and slaughter, the first having subjugated the last, although 
not definitely for one single instant ; and amidst the clash of arms, the disastrous reform 
laws (which are now recommended to be executed) were issued at Vera Cruz by a govern- 
ment that had nothing but the name, even in violation of the same constitution of 1857. 



MEXICAN AFFA1ES. 367 

After the bloody triumph of the reformists, what we all witnessed took, place, that is to 
say, the simultaneous banishment of the Mexican bishops, an unbounded persecution of 
the clergy, the imprisonment of many of them, and bloody executions of others, the savage 
ejection of the cloistered maidens, whose only crime was that of occupying themselves in 
praying for their persecutors, depriving them beforehand of all their property ; the shooting 
down, the imprisonment, the concealment, expulsion, and wretchedness of the best citizens ; 
the gagging of the press, using the most oppressive and overwhelming terror to suffocate 
the voice or complaints of the sufferer ; in fact, everything was put into play by the triumph- 
ant faction to sanction their reform laws. How can those laws appear to the eyes of com- 
mon sense? They are wanting in the most essential thing — justice ; and to put them into 
practice it was necessary to have recourse to the ominous means of force. To avoid them, 
and for that reason only, the Mexican people were obliged to recur to the last extreme, the 
last supreme effort left them, and that was to solicit aid from a foreign hand ; and when 
France extended hers she understood their true possession and felt the evils that surrounded 
them, helping to apply the remedy. The intervention not recognizing the administration 
of Don Benito Juarez as a government, (nor has it ever addressed to him one single word 
as such, and by that means disavowing his laws, his decrees, his acts, and everything that 
the idea of a government includes,) where are the antecedents, then, to suppose that the 
reform laws are in existence ? Are the}' to be found in the conduce of the Mexican people, 
or in the genuine spirit of the intervention ? In neither ; and what is certain is, that the 
only ones that exist, and by which the church property can be administered, are the same 
(canonical and civil) that existed for three and a half centuries. The supreme tribunal of 
justice swore to obey the laws of the empire, and to cause them to be obeyed, including 
among these those by virtue of which the Mexican church possesses what belongs to it, 
and cannot withdraw its obedience to bestow it upon them that bear but the name. 

The supreme tribunal of justice complies, then, with strict duty when it repeats that 
under no consideration will it consider the so-called reform laws in force, and adds, also, 
that because they wished to enslave the church, the tribunal is honored by declaring pub- 
licly and solemnly that it yields its obedience to the voice of the Mexican episcopate, who 
has decided that it is not lawful to comply with the circulars of the 9th of November and 
15th of the present month. 

If to the preceding considerations — based all upon law — we add others, which, although 
secondary to the duties incumbent upon the tribunals, they are, notwithstanding, of great 
importance in political order, and we will briefly notice some of the innumerable ones that 
occur to us. In the first place, the monopolist holders of the promissory notes (pagaris) 
and the monopolists of houses belonging to the church, being protected by a terrible law 
that admits of no procedure, delay, or form by which a defence could be made, will fall 
upon the hands of debtors, the greatest part of which are incapable of covering the debt 
in seven months, and will see their ruin consummated by the public sale of the balance 
of their fortune. 

Secondly, such immense disaster will injure agiiculture and all kinds of productive 
business to favor only a handful of monopolists, for it must be kept in mind that in 
Mexico ecclesiastic spoliation is always done in that manner, for the advantage of the few, 
and detriment to the multitude, whereas while they remained in the exclusive power of 
the church produced positive advantages everywhere 

And, finally, by carrying out the reform laws, without marking the limits and bound- 
aries, and their revision, so solemnly promised, and which justice so imperiously demands, 
the revolution will increase in colossal proportions, because to the war that is now made 
without truce against intervention by the anti-Catholic and anti-monarchical bands, if it be 
not completely vanquished; the throbbings of the excited Mexican people, wounded in their 
religious principles and vividly outraged in their material interest, will then be added to it. 

Those that may think otherwise are mistaken, for in Mexico, as well as in any other 
place, and with more reason than in another place, neither the consciences of the faithful 
nor the interests of the holders of church property will find repose unless the will of the 
supreme pastor of the church be made to appear in a concordat. Peace, that the immense 
genius of Napoleon the Great could not restore to France without the aid of the Pope, 
(that most elevated and respected personage on the earth,) will not return to Mexico unless 
he gives his assistance also. 

The tribunal concludes by repeating again, with sorrow, that for the reasons it had the 
honor of giving in its official communication of the 10th November last, as well as for 
those herein set forth, cannot legally, nor is it permitted to them conscientiously to comply, 
or to cause the circulars of the 9th of November and loth of the present month to be 
complied with. 

And, by unanimous consent, we inform your honor of the same, for the knowledge of 
their excellencies the regents. 



368 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 9 
Decree of the regency removing the judges of the supreme court. 

Department of Justice and Public Instruction 

The regency of the empire to all of its inhabitants maketh known : 

That considering that the first duty of the supreme magistracy of a state consists in 
respecting the laws and administering justice, without ever deviating from the principles 
upon which social order is based ; 

Considering that the supreme tribunal, by its exposition addressed to the regency of the 
empire on the 31st of December last, has placed itself in rebellion against the legitimate 
government, declaring that it will never, by its acts and decisions, lend any acquiescence 
to, nor will it join in, decisions which have for their object the execution of the circulars 
and official communications ordered, or which may be ordered to be published by the 
regency, relative to the question of the property called clergy property, if such dispositions 
shall not be for the purpose of restoring the same at once and directly to the said clergy ; 

Considering that the tolerance observed up to the present time by the regency with 
respect to reprehensible acts of this order, in the hope that its efforts would be successful 
in changing for the better the ideas and sentiments of the individuals reinvested with that 
high magistracy, has been considered by them as an act of debility, and not as an idea of 
conciliation, by means of which it was desired to reunite the honorable men of all opinions 
in order to form a truly national party ; 

Considering that the regents of the empire would be unworthy of the confidence of their 
fellow-citizens aud of the high mission they have received, if in the presence of this act 
of rebellion they delayed a longer time to reduce the magistracy to the limits of their 
attributes, which consist in applying the laws and administering justice without mixing 
themselves with acts which belong exclusively to the legislator, the regency of the empire 
decree — 

Art. 1. All of the magistrates and secretaiies of the supreme tribunal appointed in con- 
formity with the decree issued by the regency of the empire on the 15th of July, 1863, are 
hereby dismissed. 

Art. 2. The reorganization of the said tribunal shall be immediately proceeded with, the 
persons being ineligible to form any part of it who signed the exposition addressed to the 
regency on the 31st of December last. 

The under secretary of state and of the department of justice and public instruction is 
charged with the execution of the present decree. 

Dated in the imperial palace of Mexico the 2d day of January 1864. 

JUAN N. ALMONTE. 
JOSE MARIANO SALAS. 

To the Under Secretary of State and of the Department of Public Instruction. 

And I communicate the same to you for its publication and due observance. 

FELIPE RAYGOZA, 
Under Secretary of State and of the Department of Justice and Public Instruction. 

Imperial Palace, Mexico, January 2, 1864. 



No. 10. 

Manifesto of the Regents Almonte and Salas. 

Mexico, January 21, 1864. 

Mexicans : In accepting the elevated mission which has been confided to us, of conse- 
crating our efforts and our intelligence to preparing the way for the new destinies of our 
beloved country, it was our duty not to lose sight for a single moment of the intentions of 
the sovereign whose soldiers have come to free Mexico from tyranny in order to make it 
master of itself. Our line of conduct, therefore, was traced beforehand by our gratitude 
towards the intervention and by the interests of our country, which it was necessary not 
to separate from the French policy. That policy all know. In the folds of the banner 
which represents it arc always borne the benefits of independence, and the conciliation of 
parties in order to scatter benefits in the midst of oppressed peoples, assuring equal justice 
to all aud the protection of their rights by the faithful execution of the laws. 

All good Mexicans have been moved with pleasure when they have seen this noble ban- 
ner displayed, its colois side by side with our own. The reason was because that banner 
brought to our beautiful country, devoured by fifty years of revolutions, that peace and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 369 

order indispensable to our true regeneration. We, ourselves, the Fame as the great majority 
of the nation, have so comprehended it, and calling to our side in the different posts of the 
magistracy and of the administration those men who, in other times, had been distinguished 
for their wisdom and their patriotism, we were persuaded that they would comprehend the 
new situation of Mexico, and would loyally second us in the truly patriotic work we had 
undertaken, which is nothing less than the reconciliation of all parties on the ground of 
their common interests 

What has taken place, however ? The administration of justice, that first and most 
imperious necessity of a people freed from tyranny, has from the beginning of our reorgan- 
ization proved recreant to its noble object. The supreme tribunal, that should be the 
natural guide of all the other courts which are inferior to it, has forgotten nothing, and 
nothing has it learned. The magistrates of past times, who had been again reinvested 
through our confidence, have carried to the sanctuary of their deliberations the spirit of 
party, which is opposed to justice, and which by fostering bad passions keeps alive the evils 
of hatred and discord. After having exhausted all means of persuasion and tolerance with 
respect to these magistrates whose reform is impossible, the regency, persuaded that the 
well-being of our country lay in the adoption of the measures pointed out to us by that 
generous people who are lavishing their blood and their gold without other ambition than 
than of elevating us to the level of the most civilized nations, has found it incumbent to 
resign itself to the painful duty of removing from their public functions the magistrates of 
the supreme court who have refused us their co-operation. 

Mexicans: Be tranquil and secure. The Regency, invested with authority, will watch 
over your interests conjointly with the chiefs of the intervention. The course of justice 
will not be interrupted. In making new nominations of those who are to be charged with 
its administration we shall not inquire of these magistrates to what party they have 
belonged, but we shall exact from them that they will faithfully maintain equal rights 
for all, without distinction of opinions, and if it be necessary we shall recall to them — if 
they forget it — that the dissensions of the nation were conducting it to certain ruin, when 
the powerful hand of the Emperor Napoleon was stretched cut to arrest it on the fatal 
decline. * 

JUAN N. ALMONTE. 

JOSE MARIANO DE SALAS. 



No. 11. 

Official note from General Neigre to the Archbishop of Mexico. 

Mexico, January 16, 1864-. 

Your Grace : There has just been brought to my knowledge a matter of very grave 
import. Certain incendiary publications, which have been put under the doors of various 
houses and scattered clandestinely among the public, have reached my hands. 

The authors of these culpable publications magnify petty material interests which our 
holy religion repudiates, and appeal to the most detestable passions against the army of 
his Majesty, the Emperor, which has come to rescue Mexico from anarchy and to afford 
protection to the pastors of souls, in order to allow them the greatest liberty in their holy 
ministry. They forget that those prelates of whom they pretend to be the organ, and 
whom they make to appear as humiliated and despised, have never been surrounded with 
more respect and veneration. 

I desire to believe, your grace, that you are ignorant of these crimiual proceedings. I 
therefore have to denounce them to you, aud to address to you an entreaty in the interest 
of public order and tranquillity ; since, in the name of the Catholic religion, of which we 
Frenchmen are the eldest sons, and in the name of the prelates whom we cover with our 
respect, a degraded party is in movement to disturb the national repose. Tell that party, 
your grace, that we are watching it, and know its machinations; that the French army, 
in accord with the lawful government of the country, will maintain tranquillity ; tell it 
that, although we are always reluctant to employ violent measures of repression, we shall 
know how, if circumstances put us under that painful obligation, to make them return 
again to the obscurity from which they are daring to put forth diatribes which prove them 
to be the real enemies of Mexico. 

Be pleased to tell them this, your grace, and if they stop at your evangelical words, your 
grace will have done a great service to humanity, aud, failing their gratitude, you will 
have ours. 

BARON NEIGRE, General in Command. 

His Grace the Archbishop of Mexico. 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 24 



370 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 12. 

Reply of the Archbishop to General Neigre. 

Your Excellency : la reply to the communication of your excellency of the 16th instant, 
I have the honor to assure you, with respect to incendiary writings distributed through the 
city, that I have not had, nor even now have, any knowledge of them up to the present 
time It would, therefore, have been necessary that I should have read them to be able 
to answer you, and T would thank you sincerely if you would have the kindness to send 
me a copy of them. 

Here I would finish my letter if you did not make in yours certain assertions that, inde- 
pendently of the writings referred to, you throw upon the Mexican clergy. It is, therefore, 
indispensable to rectify these assertions in case they are not exact. 

There is an acknowledged fact — one publicly notorious — which is, that we have all pro- 
tested against the two individuals who assume to be a government, and against the circulars 
of the 9th of November and 15th of December last, and we declare categorically that the 
church, in its immunities and rights, is at present the object of the same attacks that it 
had to suffer during the government of Juarez ; that never was the church so bitterly 
persecuted ; and that we, the chief prelate, fiom the position in which we have been placed, 
find ourselves in a worse situation than at that peiiod. 

Your excellency tells me that in the exercise of their sacred ministry the pastors of souls 
enjoy the greatest protection and the most complete liberty, and that they have never been 
held in greater respect and veneration. Your excellency, then, will perceive that the two 
documents quoted (our manifesto and your letter) represent, with respect to the position 
of the church, two propositions entirely contradictory, and that of the two propositions one 
is necessarily true and the other consequently false 

In conformity with this statement of facts, and the deductions of logic, it results that 
we, a Mexicau prelate, fiud ourselves, according to your assertion, in the alternative of 
denying those writings or of retracting our words 

We cannot retract, because we have spoken the truth, protested justly, and acted right- 
fully, and we feel in our conscience that we have been placed in the painful necessity of 
acting thus. 

From what your excellency tells me, I infer that you are badly informed with regard to 
the situation of the Mexican church, and I am convinced that if you had well known the 
facts, the interests involved, and the motives which have determined our conduct, you 
would have done us justice in the opinion which you would have formed of that conduct. 

I have the honor to enclose to your excellency a copy of my protest. 

Your excellency will be pleased to accept the expression of my consideration. 

PELAGE) ANTONIO, 

Archbishop of Mexico. 

His Excellency Baron Neigre, General in Command. 



No. 13. 

Excellency : With your excellency's note, dated yesterday, I received a manuscript copy 
of the publications which, in your excellency's former communication, you said had been 
circulated in a clandestine manner, and having taken note thereof, I say in answer, that I 
am exceedingly well disposed to tell my dioceseners whatever it is my duty to tell them ac- 
cording to the purpose of my pastoral charge, whenever the restriction of the press is with- 
drawn, with the understanding that I shall assume all legal responsibility for whatever I say. 

Your excellency will accept again the assurances of esteem with which I am, general, 
your excellency's most obedient servant, 

PELAGIO ANTONIO, 

Archbishop of Mexico. 

His Excellency Baron Neigre, Genera in Command. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 371 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Department of State, 

Washington, March 2, 1864. 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 29th 
ultimo, accompanied with various documents, translated into English, relative to 
the present attitude of the clergy of Mexico towards the French authorities. 

I beg to renew my thanks for your attention, and at the same time to repeat 
the assurances of my distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Sefior Matias Romero, fyc.,' 8fc., fyc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, March 1, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : That the government of the United States may be informed 
of the conduct pursued by the French army and other agents of the imperial 
government during the invasion which is in progress in Mexico, I have the 
honor to enclose, with this note, various documents translated into English, and 
upon which I pass on to make a slight narrative. 

No. 1 is a report presented to General Forey by Mr. Budin, employed 
in the treasury, who was sent to Mexico by the imperial government to con- 
sult with the said general-in-chief upon measures suitable for this branch of 
service and to re-establish order, as was said, in the Mexican treasury. The 
report reduces itself to a proposition of the barbarous measure of sequestrating 
all the property owned by Mexican patriots who were resisting the interven- 
tion, or were perhaps showing their reprobation of it simply by leaving their 
domiciles upon their being occupied by the French. 

No. 2 is a decree issued by General Forey at Puebla in accordance with 
a like consultation. It is to be noticed that the decision was carried out with 
the greatest cruelty as well at Puebla as in the city of Mexico, where scarcely 
had the invaders entered than the decree was republished and put in execution. 
So impolitic and cruel this must have appeared in France, where at the time the 
Russian sequestration decreed against the Poles was subject of censure, although 
that insurrection surely had not such plain foundations as the Mexican resistance 
to actual invasion — so impolitic and cruel, I repeat, such measures appeared, that 
the imperial government rebuked it officially in the Moniteur, and gave orders 
that it should be revoked. Nevertheless General Forey only moderated it a 
little in an order which he issued on the 19th of August last, (No. 10.) In that 
document, marked 10, it is confessed that the penalty was applicable even to 
individuals who had absented themselves from the capital on the entrance 
of the French without having part in the legitimate administration, much less 
taking arms against intervention, and on those who were noted simply for their 
liberal opinions. Even in respect of these individuals it was decided that to 
return to their hearths they should make a declaration never to serve either in 
the military or civil branch against the so-called regency Avhich was just es- 
tablished. Notwithstanding this mitigation, the fact is that the properties of the 
patriots that were sequestered even now continue under confiscation. 

No. 3 is a communication from Mr. de Saligny, proposing that there be 
established in Mexico the same restrictions in relation to the press which are in 
force in France. 



372 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 4 is a decree in which sanction is given to these restrictions, with ex- 
aggerations in respect to Mexico. But these are not merely the rules observed 
on the publication of written articles, but the liberty of the press is completely 
suppressed, a previous censorship existing over all offered for publication, as 
Archbishop Labastida and other archbishops and bishops assure us in their pro- 
test of the 26th of December last, of which I sent a copy to your department, 
with my communication of the 29th February last past. 

Nos. 5 and 6 constitute a report by Mr. Budirj, and a decree founded on 
it, issued by General Forey, declaring void all sales and alienations posterior to 
the entry of the French army into the city of Mexico, whenever made by 
persons subject to sequestration, in conformity to the decree which has before 
been spoken of. The exclusive purpose of this determination is to augment 
the number of sequestered properties, and of victims of the like policy, making 
escape from their cruel effects totally out of question for the patriots and their 
innocent families. 

Under No. 7 I enclose a decree of the same General Forey establishing 
courts-martial with discretionary power to pass without appeal, and on a single 
hearing, upon all persons Avho form bands of "armed malefactors," with which 
name it is sought to stigmatize the Mexicans who, under previous authority 
of the constitutional government, united as guerillas in making war upon the 
invaders. Under the rigor of this decree, and even in excess of its hasty pro- 
visions, many hundreds of Mexicans have been sacrificed, condemned occasion- 
ally upon the vaguest suspicion. 

The document No. 8 is an order of the so-called regency of the empire 
to the governor of the district of Mexico, in which, under the veil of poorly 
feigned piety, solicitude to please the clergy is adverted to, providing that all 
the old Spanish legislation upon observance of festival days, so frequent in 
former times in Mexico, should be strictly observed henceforward, contrary to 
the spirit of toleration which in latter days had been prevalent. 

It is well to remember that this fanatical provision so wounded the interests 
of manufactures and commerce that the French general disapproved it, and the 
so-called r egency were subjected to the humiliation of revoking it, giving another 
proof, among so many others, that it is merely the despised instrument of the 
invaders. 

No. 9 is a circular from the department of foreign relations of the con- 
stitutional government, providing for the observance (as a just measure of re- 
prisal for the sequestration decree by the invader) of the laws of the country 
which authorized the like measure against those guilty of treason to their native 
land. 

Lastly, No. 11 is a letter from General Forey, published by his order in 
the papers of the city of Mexico, in which he relates that a French soldier had 
been assassinated at the village of Tlalpan, at a very short distance from 
said city, and that, in consequence, much inquietude prevailed there among 
French and traitors. To puuish the delinquent, whom he vaguely accuses of 
other assassinations without even indicating them, he announces that he has 
determined to fine the whole village six thousand dollars and arrest various per- 
sons of ill report, (so he calls, it is supposed, the patriots of that village,) keeping 
them as hostages to answer with their lives for the lives of French soldiers and 
their partisans the traitors. 

Following (as No. 12) appears the decree issued by the French commander 
at Tlalpan, in conformity with those barbarous provisions. Two things are 
noteworthy in this : first, that the moral influence of the French army must be 
very weak, when it is hardly felt at Tlalpan, in the environs of the capital, and 
when, notwithstanding a garrison present in the village, the French and traitors 
were filled with terror at any manifestation of the hatred with which they were 
regarded by the Mexicans. The second to be noted is that savage fury of General 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



373 



Forey in punishing an entire village for the act of some unknown person, in 
making responsible for future occurrences an uncertain number of individuals 
selected at caprice, or rather to punish their patriotic opinions, and in announc- 
ing, as he has with most odious complacency, that if those measures were not 
sufficient for their object, he would destroy the entire settlement. These acts 
manifest very clearly what are the means which the invaders of Mexico employ 
to attain their ends, and what character of injustice and barbarism predominates 
in this invasion, which it is an insult to good sense to call civilizing. 

The interest which, in my opinion, the government of the United States must 
feel in the events of grave importance which are taking place in my country, 
makes me hope that you will receive with satisfaction the annexed documents, and 
the brief remarks I have. thought it proper to make in this note. 

I avail of the occasion to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my very dis- 
tinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 



Index of the documents which the Mexican legation at Washington remitted to the Department of Stale of 
the United States, annexed w its note of this date, on the attacks and outrages committed by the French 
in Mexico. 



No. 



Date. 





1863. 


1 


May 


21 


2 


May 


21 


3 


Juno 


15 


i 


June 


15 


5 


June 


16 


6 


June 


16 


7 


June 


20 


8 


July 


16 


9 


July 


18 


10 


Aug 


19 


11 


Aug. 


22. 


12 


Aug. 


27 



Contents. 



Report of K: Budin to General Forey, proposing that he issue a law of 
confiscation of the property of Mexican patriots who defend independ- 
ence 

Law of confiscation issued in consequence by General Forey. 

Report of M. Saligny to General Forey that he subject the press in Mex- 
ico to the same restrictions that weigh upon the press in France. 

Decree issued by General Forey in consequence, in conformity with the 
preceding report. 

Keport of M. Budin to General Forey, proposing that he declare void 
some of the sales made by the Mexican government of national prop- 
erty. 

Decree issued by General Forey in consequence, in conformity with the 
preceding report. 

Decree of General Forey establishing courts-martial to try some of the 
offences committed in Mexico. 

Decree of the regency, so-called, that festival days be observed in Mex- 
ico in the manner provided by ancient Spanish legislation. 

Circular of the national government of Mexico calling for the fulfilment 
of the Mexican laws of confiscation in respect to the property of traitors. 

Explanatory order of Greneral Forey on the decree of sequestration is- 
sued at Puebla the 15th of June previous. 

Letter of General Forey on reprisals to be made at Tlalpam for the as- 
sassination of a French soldier. 

Decree issued by the military commander at Tlalpann in virtue of the 
preceding letter. 



IGN. MARISCAL. 



Washington, March 1, 1864. 



374 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 1. 

Communication made by M. Budin to General Forty in regard to the sequestration of the property of the 

Mexican patriots. 

Puebla, May 21, 1863. 

General : When you arrived in the Mexican republic with the army of which the Em- 
peror has intrusted to you the command, in order to punish the wrongs and insults of which 
France and her citizens have been the object on the part of the government of Mexico, 
you gave ample publicity, by your proclamations and by important acts, which it is need- 
less to repeat here, to the purpose of the intervention and the favorable views of his Im- 
perial Majesty in regard to this country. You have not ceased to repeat that conquest was 
not the idea of France ; that under her banner no other intentions were entertained but to 
cause the country to reorganize herself, by delivering it from the despotism which for so 
long a time has weighed upon its destinies, ruined its finances, and impeded all the matevial 
progress which its abundant resources, its rich soil, s» favored by nature, should cause it 
to realize. In order to attain more promptly the object contemplated in the intervention, 
you have called for the co-operation of honorable men of all parties; you have invited the 
aid of all men of moderate opinions. The number of those who have come to place them- 
selves under the loyal banner of France is relatively great, if we consider that the changes, 
that the revolutions, of which this unfortunate country has been the theatre for forty years, 
have extinguished all moral sentiment and perverted all ideas of right and wrong. 

In view of your declarations, so clear and so precise, in consideration of the policy so 
frank and so disinterested that accompanies all the foreign expeditions of the empire, was 
it possible to be mistaken in regard to the intentious of France ? Was Mexico authorized 
to treat as deceitful the words of peace addressed to her by and in the name of a power 
whose every aspiration is for liberty, whose forces and sacrifices have no other object than 
to bear the torch of civilization to an oppressed people? Clearly not ; and if interested 
men in the support of the disorderly condition of things which you have come to attack, 
because it is for them a source of profit, had not interposed between a docile people whom 
they lead astray, and your well-meaning words which they distort, it is probable that the 
power which exists only by means of disorder would have been now demolished. 

The time has come for the adoption against these agitators of more rigorous means — such 
means as, by reaching their material interests, may cause them to understand, as I trust, 
that the time of longanimity has passed. What the wise exhortations which you have ad- 
dressed to them, what the well-meaning intentions of the Emperor which you have explained 
to them, has been unable to effect, will perhaps be attained by attacking the property of 
those men of bad faith, who persist in remaining in the hostile lines to combat the true 
interests of their country. The means the adoption of which appears to me necessary in 
regard to the men who thus far have held aloof from the intervention, has had fortunate 
results under other circumstances — that is, sequestration— sequestration, ransacking the en- 
tire estates appertaining to such Mexicans as yet bear arms against intervention. This 
meaDS would equally reach the personal estates, as far as their incomes couid be seized. 
You know, general, what the effect is of sequestration ; it is to transfer to the hands of the 
state, represented here by the prefect, the administration of all the goods appertaining to 
those citizens who find themselves in the condition mentioned. 

The conditions of sequestration may vary according to circumstances 

In the draught of a decree which I have the honor of submitting to you, and which I 
request you to sign if you approve its terms, I have reserved to the commander-in-chief of 
the army the right of mitigating its ligor in regard to such citizens as may be worthy of 
that favor, either because they may abandon within a fixed period the party which you have 
had to oppose, or because they may justify themselves for having been dragged into it by 
reason of force and violence. 

Be pleased, general, to accept the expression of my respect and esteem. 

BUDIN, General Financial Agent. 

General Forey, 

General of Division and Senator of France, 

Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Corps. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 375 

No. 2. 
Decree of General Forey in regard to the sequestration to vjhick the preceding communication refers. 

According to the communication submitted to me by the general financial agent of the 
expedition, it has seemed proper to me to decree : 

Akt. 1. Sequestration will be resorted to of all the estates appertaining to the citizens of 
the republic who bear arms against the French intervention, whether they render their ser- 
vices in the regular army or in the bands of guerillas, or others in a state of hostility to- 
wards France. 

Art. 2. The personal property appertaining to the individuals comprised in the preceding 
article will also be subjected to this measure, as far as such property can be seized upon. 

Am. 3. The political prefect of each state subject to the intervention shall constitute 
under his presidency a commission of four members, who shall be charged with designating 
the persons who should be comprised in the above-mentioned categories, and with drawing 
up a statement of the general condition of estates, both in the country and in the cities, and 
of personal property which may appertain to them. 

Akt. 4. This statement, agreeably to the model aunexed to the present decree, will be 
signed by all the members of the commission and certified by the president prefect. 

Art. 5. A copy of this statement shall be published in all the places of general resort 
throughout the country subject to the intervention, with a notification from the prefect 
informing tenants, lessees, and debtors of the goods and credits sequestrated, that they 
cannot exonerate theniselves lawfully without satisfactory payment of the amounts due 
into the hands of the administrator of internal revenue of the district wherein the things 
sequestered are situated. 

Art. 6. A copy of the above-mentioned statement, certified by the prefect, shall be, as 
soon as published, transmitted to the administrator of the revenue to serve as a guide for his 
direction. 

Art. 7. The arrangements relative to rents, hiring out, or other matter whatever, that 
may be further entered into by the prefects to enhance the value of the personal estates 
that may be unoccupied, shall also be certified in writing to the same administrator, in order 
that they may serve him as foundations for legal proceedings against those indebted. 

Art. 8. It is expressly prohibited, under the penalties prescribed by law, to the agents 
appointed for the collection of the internal revenue to exact from those indebted a sum 
greater than that set down in the lists. Exception only is made in regard to the expenses 
anticipated to be necessary in order to verify the collection of the sums which may be due, 
and which should be collected in their entirety. 

Art. 9. The administrators of the revenue shall give a receipt for every sum paid to 
them, and shall include all receipts of this kind in a separate account, either in their books 
or in their monthly statements. Such account shall be entitled, "Collections made of sequestered 
property " 

Art. 10. The general-in-chief reserves to himself the right of deciding, according to the 
information laid before him by the prefects, upon all petitions that may be presented to 
him, either for exemption from the decree of sequestration, or for the restitution of the in- 
comes received in virtue of the preceding dispositions 

Art. 11. The present decree shall be immediately published, printed, and circulated 
throughout the whole extent of the country subject to the intervention, and a similar course 
shall be pursued in succession in all the states of the republic, in order that it may be ex- 
ecuted in its form and tenor by the prefects that may be established in those states. 

Art. 12. Fifteen days after its publication the commission, mentioned in article 3, shall 
proceed to draw out the statement above referred to. In it shall be included all persons 
who shall not, at that date, have returned to their homes, or who may not be prisoners 
of war. 

In case, after the conclusion of this document, and its transmission to the administrator, 
the prefect shall be informed of the emigration of one or more of such persons as may be 
subject to administration in his department, it shall be his duty to draw up a supplementary 
statement, which shall have the same legal effect as the preceding to confer title. 

Art. 13. The general financial agent is charged with the execution of the present decree, 
which shall be notified to the commanding officer in each district and state through the 
chief officer in command of the staff. 

Given at Puebla. May 21, 1863. 

FOREY, 
General of Division, Senator of France, Src, Sfc. 



376 MEXICAN AFFAIR& 



No. 3. 

Communication of M. De Saligny to General Forey in regard to the liberty of the presx. 

Mexico; June 15, 1863. 

General : By an order brought to the knowledge of the public, you hare for a time 
suspended the publication of the periodicals of the country. This exceptional means was 
justified by the reasons naturally arising out of the condition in which the republic of Mexico 
was found subsequent to the departure of the government of Juarez, and previous to the 
establishment of the new power. It was to be feared, in fact, that abandoned to itself, and 
without other control tban that of its editors, the press, which in well-organized states is a 
powerful means by which to inculcate to the masses the ideas of order and healthy policy, 
would be here only an instrument in the service of evil passions to agitate the country, by 
misrepresenting the intentions of France, and dividing good citizens, by sowing the seeds 
of discord among them. Under all these points of view, it was indispensable to adopt a 
course which allowed time to study the situation of affairs before consigning it to the dis- 
cussion of the periodicals, and tracing to the press a line of conduct such as would never 
place it in opposition to the direction which the constituted authorities considered proper 
to be impressed on public affairs. There could not exist in the life of a nation more solemn 
moments than those which gleam athwart Mexico under the present circumstances. Her 
future, her prosperity, her greatness in time to come, even her very existence, constitute 
the prize which is to reward the efforts that are about to be made by those honorable citi- 
zens who shall accept the laborious work of toiling in the reorganization of the country on 
a new basis. 

If, in view of such difficulties, it is the duty of every good Mexican to preach concord, 
and adherence to the temporary power charged with preparing the destinies of the country, 
with greater reason is it that permission cannot be granted to the organs of the press to 
branch out into controversies, which, if they are always dangerous when they attack the 
spirit of governments already assented to, could at the present conjuncture paralyze the 
best intentions, by inspiring doubts into the mind, and disseminating doctrines that may 
threaten, even before they are resolved upon, the bases of tie institutions which the Mexican 
republic anxiously hopes from the friendly intervention of the Emperor. 

Confining itself within the limits of decent discussion, under the serl of moderation, and 
without ever attacking religion, the personal character of public men, or the private life 
of individuals, the press may be well occupied with the general interests of the country, 
and making known its aspirations, until the time when the rightful representatives of the 
people have determined the form of the new government which it is proposed to establish. 
If the press properly comprehends its mission, it is called to perform the most eminent 
services, by propagating good ideas among the masses, and warring upon the Utopias which 
corrupt them. 

Your intention, general, is to applj r to the press of Mexico the regulations established in 
France ; it is, therefore, a reasonable liberty which is conceded to the press. Liberty is 
not licentiousness. Firmly persuaded of this wise principle, which is the safeguard of all 
interests, the writers of the Mexican press will always rise to the levei of the important 
mission and sacred duty to which they are called, in seconding the constituted authorities, 
and frequently advising them, without ever forgetting the respect which is their due. 

I have prepared, and I have the honor of now submitting to your approbation, the de- 
cree which regulates, in accordance with the principles laid down, the conduct of the press 
of Mexico. This decree is intended to have merely a transitory effect ; it will be susceptible 
of all the modificat : ons which the definitive government of the country may think proper 
to give it. 

Accept, general, the assurances of my highest esteem and regard. 

A DE SALIGNY, 

Minister of the Emperor. 

General Forey, 

General of Division and Senator of France, 

Commander -in-Ch'vf of tht Expeditionary Army of Mexico. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 377 



No. 4. 

Decree of General Forey regulating the liberty of the press. 

Forey, general of division, and senator of France, commanding in chief the expeditionary 
army of Mexico : 

Desiring to revoke the order suspending the press, which was dictated by the anomalous 
circumstances in which Mexico is situated, I have thought proper, in accordance with the 
communication made to me by the minister of the Emperor, to decree as follows : 

Article 1. Every person domiciliated in Mexico for a period of one year preceding may 
establish a periodical, to treat of public affairs, civil, commercial, scientific, and literary 
matters, after having first obtained the authority of the government to that effect. 

Art. 2. Each periodical will be under obligation to have a responsible editor, approved 
by the administration, and whose signature shall appear at the end of each number of the 
paper. All original articles must be signed by their authors ; reproductions from other 
periodicals by the responsible editor. 

Art. 3. All discussion of the laws and institutions established for the country by its rep- 
resentatives is expressly forbidden. 

Art. 4. It is likewise forbidden to the press to concern itself with what appertains to 
religion, as such discussion may always compromise sacred interests, or impair the honor 
and consideration due to the clergy. 

Art 5. A moderate discussion of the acts of the administration is allowed, without any 
reference, however, to the persons of the representatives of authority. 

Art. 6. The journals must insert, entire and without charge, the communications that 
may be sent to them by the department of the government intrusted with the censorship 
of the press. Such communications must neither be preceded nor accompanied by any re- 
flections whatever. 

Art. 7. Any person mentioned in the articles of discussion may likewise cause to be in- 
serted, free of charge, whatever be its length, his answer or his observations on the article 
which concerns him, provided, always, such answer contains nothing that may call for the 
animadversion of the authorities, or incur a penalty provided by the laws of the country. 

Art. 8. The infraction of articles 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will be an occasion for warnings, which 
shall be notified to the responsible editor of the paper and to the author of the article con- 
demned, and which shall be inserted at the head of that number of the paper which appears 
on the day following that of the notification. These warnings cannot be the object of any 
discussion on the part of the journal to which they are given. 

Art. 9. After two successive warnings, every periodical may be suspended for a certain 
determinate period. If occasion be given for a third warning, before being relieved from 
the consequences of the two preceding, the paper may be definitively suppressed. 

Art. 10. The penalties laid down in article 9 will be dictated by the executive power, 
according to the information laid before it by the director of the press 

Art. 11. Crimes and delinquencies, qualified as such by the laws of the land, and com- 
mitted by the medium of the press, either against public morality or against private persons 
or private interests, will be prosecuted and judged in accordance with actual legislation in 
effect at the time. 

Art. 12. Questions relative to matters of minor importance, such as constitute misde- 
meanors, are reserved for the, further decision of the executive power. 

Art. 13. The minister of the Emperor is charged with the execution of the present 
decree. 

Given at Mexico, June 15, 1863. 

FOREY. 



No. 5. 
Communication of M Budin to General Forey in relation to sales called illegal. 

Mexico, June 16, 1863. 

General : The lieutenant colonel commanding in the city of Mexico informs me, in a 
communication bearing date on the present day, that the goods, movable and immovable, 
appertaining to the persons comprised in your decree of sequestration, are being alienated 
by the agents of the proprietors, who think, by acting in this way. to withdraw them from 
the effects of the aforesaid decree. You cannot permit, general, that the arrangements by 
means of which you have, with sufficient reason* calculated to inspire a great number of 



378 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

those who have followed the opposite party with better sentiments towards their country, 
should thus be eluded by persons whose first duty it is to respect the acts of the authority 
which protects them and affords them security. There is no difference between the venders 
and the purchasers. Both should be prosecuted by all the means requisite to give just 
effect to the acts to which reference has been made. I submit, general, the following 
resolutions tor your approval. 

1. That all sales made since the entry of the French troops into the city of Mexico, that 
is, from the 10th of June; all sales effected in other places occupied by France since the 
publication of the decree ; finally, all that may henceforward be made, be null and void, 
and will not hinder the carrying out of the provisions of the decree of sequestration. 

2. That the bureau of rental revenue, on assuming the administration of immovable 
goods, will be held bound to no reimbursement to purchasers. 

3. That the prefect will compel purchasers to make restitution to the bureau of such 
movable goods as they may have purchased, or the value of them. 

4. That any individual informing the prefect of a fraudulent act of this nature shall 
receive a reward, to be ascertained by that functionary in accordance with the importance 
of the effects recovered. 

5. That any public functionary, notary or other, who may, after the publication of the 
present decree, give his official aid to draw up any instrumeuts of writing to effectuate 
such sales as are herein prohibited, shall be deprived of his office and fined not less than 
one thousand dollars, for the benefit of the tre isur} 7 . 

If you approve the regulations which I have the honor of proposing to you, in order to 
correct the abuse which I have indicated, I request you, general, to sign the annexed 
decree, which will be put in execution immediately. 

Please accept, general, the expression of my respectful consideration. 

BUDIN, 
Commissioner Extraordinary of Finance. 
Certified copy : 

BUDINT. 
Commissioner Extraordinary of Finance. 



No. C. 

Forey, general of division, senator of France, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army in Mtx'co. 

In view of the preceding communication from the commissioner extraordinary of finance, 
I have deemed it proper to decree as follows : 

Article 1. All sales of goods, movable or immovable, belonging to persons comprised 
in the decree of sequestration which may have been effected by the agents of the proprietors 
since the entrance of the French troops into the city of Mexico, that is, from the 10th of 
June ; all that may have been made in other places occupied by France since the publica- 
tion of the decree ; finally, all that may henceforward be made, shall be null and void 
and of no effect, and shall not hinder the carrying out of the provisions of the decrea of 
sequestration. 

Art. 2. The bureau of rental revenue, on assuming the administration of immovable 
goods, shall be held bound to no reimbursement to purchasers. 

Art. o. The political prefect of each district will compel purchasers to make restitution 
of movable goods, or of the value of them, t) the bureau. 

Art. 4. Any person informing the prefect of a fraudulent act of this nature shall receive 
a reward fixed by that functionary, and proportionate to the value of the objects recovered. 

Art. 5. Any public functionary, notary or other, who may, after the publication of the 
present decree, afford his ministerial assistance to draw up instruments of writing for sales 
prohibited by this decree, shall incur the penalty of deprivation of office, and a fine of not 
less than one thousand dollars, for the benefit of the treasury. 

Art. 6. The commissioner extraordinary of finance is charged with the execution of the 
present decree, which will be inserted in the official bulletin of the acts of the intervention. 

Given at Mexico. June 16, 1S63. 

FOREY. 

Certified copy : 

BUDIN, 
Cjmmissioner Extraordinary of Finance. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 379 

No. 7. 
Decree of Gen. For ey organizing a court-martial. 

The general of division and senator of France, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary 
corps in Mexico : 

Considering that it is important to put an end to the acts of vandalism committed by the 
bands of malefactors who overrun the country, perpetrating acts of violence on persons and 
property, and paralyzing commercial relations ; considering, also, that the ordinary laws 
are insufficient to repress these disorders and cause delays prejudicial to the prompt sup- 
pression of crimes in those same places in which they are committed, I decree as follows : 

1. All persons forming part of a band of armed malefactors are outside the pale of the 
law. 

2. All persons of this description who may be arrested shall be judged by a court- 
martial. 

3. Such court shall be invested with discretionary powers 

4. It shall be composed of an official superior as president, two captains as judges, a 
judge advocate, and a sergeant as secretary of the court. An interpreter shall be added to 
the court. Persons accused may, at their own request, have counsel to defend them. 

5. The court shall pronounce sentence by absolute majority of votes at the same sitting. 

6. From such sentence there shall be no appeal, and it shall be executed within twenty- 
four hours from the time of rendering judgment. . 

7. A court-martial shall be established in every place in which it may be necessary. 

8. The duties of each court shall be temporary, and shall begin and cease according to 
the orders of the commander-in-chief, or of the military commander, to whom the com- 
mander-in-chief may delegate his powers to this effect. 

Headquarters in Mexico, June 20, 1863. 

FOREY, General of Division, SfC. , Sec. 



No. 8. 
Order of the regency to tlu governor of the district of Mexico in regard to the observance of festivals. 

Department of State and Government, 
Palace of the Regency of tlie Umpire, Mexico, July 16, 1863. 

The gross abuse which, with manifest violation of a sacred precept of religion, has been 
for a long time committed in this capital, in disregarding the observance of festival days, 
on which, to the scandal of all good Catholics, labor is carried on in the workshops, and 
stores are kept open for the sale of articles not necessary to subsistence, nor otherwise 
excepted in the regulations properly promulgated by the civil authorities, at different 
periods, has justly called for the attention of the regency of the empire, since such an 
abuse, which is not seen in other countries, even in those dissenting from Catholicity, dem- 
onstrates a relaxation from Christian customs, so much the more notable, as it exists in a 
society that loudly proclaims itself Catholic and rigorous observer of the precepts of 
religion. 

Wherefore the regency has deemed it proper to resolve that you should issue your orders 
to prevent for the future this scandalous infraction, and should see that all fulfil strictly 
the regulations in force in respect to the observance of festival days. 

Which supreme order I communicate to you for the purpose expressed. 

J. I. DE ANIEVAS, 
Sub-Secretary of State and of Government. 



No. 9. 

Circular from the Department of Foreign Affairs in regard to the sequestration of the property of 

traitors. 

Department of Government. 

The newspapers have in a great measure published the names of such bad Mexicans as 
have committed the heinous crime of treason, by co-operating with the invaders of their 
country in the erection of a false and spurious government. 



380 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Assuredly the nation will destroy this abominable farce ; but, for all that, the traitors 
should not remain unpunished. And when our foreign enemy and his adherents, violating 
all principle, arrogated to themselves the power of confiscating the goods of worthy citi- 
zens who serve the government of their country, it is not just that the action of our laws 
should be suspended, relative to the sequestration and alienation of property, for violation 
of the duties of allegiance. 

Wherefore, if in the state, which you so worthily govern, such seizure should be intended 
to have effect, you will issue your orders to have the preliminary formalities immediately 
arranged, and report to this department, in order that the proper determinations should be 
made in regard to the alienation of the sequestered property. In view of which, after the 
period of fifteen days after the receipt of this supreme resolution, information may be 
received of overlooked or concealed goods, liable to sequestration, and the informer shall, 
in such case, be rewarded with the fourth part of the amount for which the goods so dis- 
covered may be sold. 

Liberty and reform. 

San Luis Potosi, July 18, 1863. FUENTE. 

The Governor of the State of . 



No. 10. 

Explanation by Gen. Forey of the law of sequestration of the property of the patriots. 

Mexico, August 19, 1863. 
To the superior officers in command of the provinces and districts in the military occupation of the inter- 
vention : 

M. Le Commandant : I have been informed that the commissions, instituted in conformity 
with the decree of May 21 last, in regard to sequestration, are accustomed to deviate, in 
the execution of that measure from the spirit that dictated it. The terms of that decree, 
and those of the preceding communication on which it was founded, should not give 
occasion to interpretations that in their very nature originate errors, these being so much 
the more serious, the more they place in doubt the good faith of the commissioners, in 
creating certain categories of sequestrations not contemplated in the decree. 

In the main, it was not soirght to affect any but those persons who oppose the arms of 
the intervention, and serve either in the regular army or in bands of guerillas. Posterior 
to the publication of the decree, and in view of the observations of the financial commis- 
sary extraordinary, I determined that those persons who take an active part in the gov- 
ernment of the ex-president should also be comprised in the sequestration. In fact, it 
did not appear proper that the ministers and high functionaries, who exert a much greater 
influence in affairs than military men, should, whatever be their grade, be more favorably 
treated. 

This political measure, thus understood and applied, has for its object what you have 
doubtless not failed to perceive, and that is, to draw off, by touching their interests, those 
persons who serve in one or other way, whether in a military or political capacity, the gov- 
ernment of Juarez. This distinction made, you now understand that the sequestration 
need not always be imposed on the goads of those persons who assert that they are neither 
combatants nor prrblic functionaries, and to whom the measure applies because they hap- 
pen to be absent from their homes, or because they conceive that their ideas are different 
from those of the intervention. In regard to the former, it will be proper to demand from 
them a declaration, in virtue of which they will oblige themselves not to serve either in a 
military or in a civil capacity against the imperial government which has just been 
founded. Petitions for relief from sequestration shall not be transmitted by the prefect to 
the proper authorities, unless they be accompanied by the above-mentioned obligation. 
When, through mistake or other cause, sequestration has been applied to the goods of 
individuals of the second class, their petitions shall be attended to without any other 
requisite than the presentation of the certificate of the authorities of the place of the resi- 
dence of the parties, irr which certificate it shall be stated that they are neither military 
men nor public functionaries, or that they had retired from public affairs a considerable 
time previous to the decree of the 21st of May. 

I request you, commander, to communicate the contents of this letter to the civil gov- ^ 

ernor of N , and recommend to him to proceed, in the way which I have indicatedJB 

in the practical details of the commission of sequestration. 

Receive, commander, the assurance of my most respectful consideration. 

FOREY, Marshal of France and Commander in-Chirf. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 381 

No. 11. 

Letter from Marshal Forey. 

Expeditionary Corps of Mexico, Cabinet of the General in-Chief, 

Mexico, August 22, 1863. 

Mr. Editor : I have read in your paper to-day that three French soldiers have been 
assassinated in Tlalpan recently, and that you desire to see the authorities adopt rigorous 
measures with reference to that locality. 

There has been only one military victim ; but for some time various persons, resident in 
that village, have perished, cowardly attacked by assassins, who, on account of the debility 
of the local authority, [this village is within sight of the city of Mexico, so that it is 
strange, if the French are so well received, order does not prevail that short distance from 
the principal point occupied by the French. — Translator.] evade the pursuit of justice, and 
find in the houses of the inhabitants an asylum which effectually conceals them. 

For the rest your desires have been already anticipated, and yesterday I dictated, in 
accord with the government, the necessary rigorous measures to prevent the repetition of 
crimes which offend the public conscience, as well of French officials as of those Mexicans 
who have a right to my protection. 

The ganison of Tlalpan has been augmented, and a high official will hereafter discharge 
the funtions of piefect. The ayuntamiento (common council) has been removed. The 
village of Tlalpan will suffer a penalty of $6,000, which will in part be distributed for the 
benefit of the victims who have been cowardly assassinated. A certain number of 
individuals of bad reputation [?] will be arrested and will serve as hostages. If the 
assassinations continue, these hostages shall respond for them with their heads. If this is 
not sufficient, the village will be destroyed. It is time that, as the Emperor said when 
detestable passions raged in France, the good should be tranquilized, and also the bad. The 
government and myself are perfectly in accord in our measures to maintain order and 
assure good citizens the enjoyment of their property, and of their lives, which is the first 
of all ; and if we are disposed to forget the past and to act with clemency towards those 
who frankly adhere to the new order of things which the nation itself has established, we 
are equally decided to follow with the extremest measures of rigor all the enemies of social 
order. 

Keceive the assurances, &c. 

FOREY, 
Marshal of France, Commandant of the Expeditionary Corps of Mexico. 



No. 12. 

Tlalpan, August 27, 1863. 

The superior military commandant and political chief of Tlalpan, in accordance with the 
order of the marshal commanding the French army, to the inhabitants aud proprietors of 
this village maketh known as follows : 

Article 1. The civil and administrators' authorities are temporarily suspended. 

Art. 2. The superior commandant of Tlalpan will exercise all powers in the district. 

Art. 3. In punishment for the assassination of the Zouave Multer, a fine of $6,000 is 
imposed upon the village of Tlalpan. This fine must be fully paid within four days 
following the publication of this decree. 

Art. 4. The individuals of this town who have been conducted as prisoners to the 
capital will respond for the lives of the French and of those honorable persons who have 
adhered to the new government For every such honorable person or soldier who shall be 
assassinated in Tlalpan, a reprisal will he made with the life of one of the aforesaid 
prisoners. 

Art. 5. All the inhabitants of Tlalpan must obey exactly the orders given by the 
superior commandant. 
* If there is opposition the marshal will be obliged to adopt measures of rigor. 

COUSIN, 
Military Commandant and Political Chief. 



382 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

No. 13. 

Lcdgings. 

Mexico, June 15, 1863. 

De Poitier, lieutenant colonel, commander of the place of Mexico, to its inhabitants, 
know ye : 

That his excellency, general of division, senator, commander-in-chief of the French 
expeditionary corps, with the object that the lodgings of the army and its officers should 
be less onerous to the inhabitants of this capital, has regulated the obligations they shall 
be under, declaring that all owners of houses are obliged to place at the disposal of each 
lieutenant aud sub-lieutenant one room ; to captains, two rooms ; to superior officers, three 
rooms, of which one must be a parlor. Colonels must have at least five rooms. The 
officers of staff must have a number in proportion to the exigencies of the service. 

It must be understood that the rooms placed at the disposal of the officers of the army 
will not be empty ones, but furnished by the owners ; that is to say, they must supply them 
with beds, chairs, tables, and other furniture. Should these obligations be not complied 
with, the municipal authorities shall see that said lodgings are furnished at the expense of 
the proprietors if they choose to excuse themselves. 

Those inhabitants that should have to lodge mounted officers must reserve in their 
stables the necessary locality and stalls for their horses. 

DE POITIER. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



[Translation. ] 

Mexicax\ Legation to the United States of America. 

Washington, March 2, 1864. 
Mr. Secretary : To complete the series of documents relating to the impor- 
tant events -which are actually taking place in the Mexican republic, which I 
have had the honor to send to your department, I enclose with this note, trans- 
lated into English, those relative to the occupation of Puebla by the French 
army on the evacuation of the city of Mexico by the government and national 
army, and on the installation of the former at the city of San Luis Potosi. I 
also enclose a declaration of blockade of the Mexican ports on the Gulf, and some 
proclamations of the French Generals Forey and Bazaine. 

I avail of tbis opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 
Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc., fyc., Spc. 



General Ortega's announcement of the surrender of Puebla. — Army of the east. — The Commander -in- 

chi'f to the Minister of War. 

Heapquarters at Zaragoza, May 17, 1863. 

With this date and at this hour, 4- a. m.. I send the following communication to the 
commander-in-chief of the French army : 

General: As it is impossible for me to continue defending this city, from the want of 
ammunition and provisions, I have disbanded the army that was under my command and 
destroyed its equipments, including all the artillery. The city is therefore at the order of 
your excellency, and you can direct it to be occupied today it you think fit, the measures 
dictated by prudence to prevent the evils that a violent occupation will bring with it when 
there is no motive for it. The generals, commanders, and officers of which this army 
consists, are at the Government House, and surrender as prisoners of war. I iv.nnot, 
general, continue defending myself any longer. If I could, do not doubt that I w<H 
do so. 

Please accept, &c, &c. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 383 

The above I transcribe for the information of the supreme magistrate of the republic, 
to whom I hope you will explain that the army — the command of which he was pleased to 
intrust to me— defended itself as was suitable to the honor and reputation of the republic, and 
that it would have continued doing so if an absolute physical impossibility had not 
interposed to prevent it, since some days past it had consumed all the provisions and the 
small quantity of ammunition which remained to it after the fierce attacks which it lately 
suffered, and in which, fortunately, it did not lose a single redoubt. 

I believe, sir, that I have fulfilled the wishes of the supreme government, and complied 
with the duties imposed upon me by honor and the office intrusted to me ; but if it should 
not be so I will with pleasure submit to a trial as soon as I am at liberty, for in a few 
hours I shall be a prisoner. 

Libeity and reform. 

J. G. ORTEGA. 

The Minister of Wae, Mexico. 



Proclamation of President Juarez. 

Mexicans: The nation has just suffered a great disaster. Puebla de Zaragoza, immor- 
talized by numerous and glorious attacks, has just surrendered — not because of the power 
of the French, whom our soldiers had become accustomed to repulse, but for reasons 
which the government must consider without parallel for their glory alone. None of our 
generals, or chiefs, who have so greatly distinguished themselves in the defence of that 
city, have as yet sent to the government information of this deplorable event, but a variety 
of private accounts accredit the fact, although they are silent or vary on points of the 
greatest interest. But the occupation of Zaragoza, which could not be taken in any of 
the repeated assaults of the enemy, nor by the most formidable modes of warfare, does 
not in any way lessen or tarnish the glory of our brave warriors, who have known how to 
maintain the name of Mexico in spite of the arrogant invaders. Dishonorable and with- 
out glory has been their success, who have always been worsted in the brave combats of 
which the city of Zaragoza has been the theatre. 

Mexicans ! this calamity cannot, under any aspect, dL-courage the holy undertaking 
which you are carrying out. Prove to the French, prove to all the nations who are 
watching your actions in this unfortunate situation, that adversity is not a sufficient 
cause for fainting to the determined republicans who defend their native land and their 
rights. Our country is vast, and contains innumerable elements of war, which we will 
use against the invaders. Not only will the capital of the republic be defended to the last 
extremity with all the elements which we can command, but all places will be defended 
with like vigor. The national government will urge with energy on all sides the resistance 
to and attack upon the French, and will not listen to any proposition of peace from them 
which shall offend in the minutest particular the independence, complete sovereignty, the 
liberty, or the honor of the republic and its glorious antecedents in this war. 

Mexicans! let us swear by the heroes killed in defending the holy walls of Zaiagoza, 
let us swear by those who still live, victors there while able to battle, that we will wage 
war without ceasing, and under all sacrifices, against the odious army which is profaning 
the soil of Hidalgo, of Moreloz, of Zaragoza, and of Gonzalez Ortega 

BENITO JUAREZ. 



M 



Close of the General Congress. 

On the 31st of last month the general congress closed its sessions in conformity with the 
constitution. On this solemn occasion the following discourses were delivered : 

The president of the republic arose and said : 

Citizen Deputies : Notwithstanding the violence and danger of the present situation, you 
have occupied yourself in the performance of your important duties up to the present day, 
on which the constitution commands you to terminate them. Although this, indeed, is 
nothing new and requires no great effort on the part of the worthy representatives of the 
exican people, in whom all the civic virtues are conspicuous, it will be, in truth, one proof 
,he more of the security and firmly established dominion of our institutions presented to 
lie view of our foreign enemy, when not only he but many politicians of Europe prophe- 
sied the utter ruin of our government at the very clash of the arms of Napoleon III. 



384 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

But the influence of the army which that potentate has sent to subjugate us reaches no 
further than the ground which it occupies, and our enemies have no reason to be proud of 
an occupation that has left all the honor and the glory on our side. 

The events that have transpired in Puebla de Ztragoza have filled the people of Mexico 
with noble pride, and have intensified their purpose of repelling the invaders of their coun- 
try, who have ahead}'' thrown off the mask of deceit to parade their impudence in the face 
of the world. The defence of Zaragoza and the glorious disaster which terminated that 
truly sublime drama — a contest in which the French were so often humbled, an exploit 
unparalleled in its heroism, and only performed under the pressure of the sternest necessity 
and the noble resolution of never surrendering our arms and our banners — are prodigies that 
proclaim the greatness of this people, examples that will not, most assuredly, be lost on 
the people of Mexico. 

Your solicitude has been worthily employed in ameliorating the fate of our soldiers 
wounded and taken prisoners, and in providing for their families. The government has 
always employed itself in fulfilling this demand of patriotism and of the clearest justice, 
and the republic makes such provisions in this regard as are in its power. 

Adversity, citizen deputies, dismays only contemptible nations. Our people are ennobled 
by great deeds, and we are far from losing sight of the immense moral and material obsta- 
cles which the country will oppose to its unjust invaders. 

The vote of confidence with which you have honored me anew claims the warmest ex- 
pression of my acknowledgment to the assembly of the nation, though it can no longer 
enhance my honor or my duty in the defence of my country. 

You are now going to serve her beyond the precincts of these walls, and your love for 
her should, on all occasions, be animated by the assurance that the government will sustain 
the will of the Mexican people, maintaining, at all hazards, their autonomy and their dem- 
ocratic institutions. 

Mr. Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada replied in the following terms : 

Mr. President : The congress of the union concludes, to-day, the second yearly term of 
its sessions, on the day designated by the fundamental code. 

While some of the representatives of the people have been defending the national honor 
and independence in arms, others have come from the remotest states, so that congress 
might not fail to assemble at the time appointed by the constitution. Thus once again 
has the pretext been belied for the iniquitous war waged against the republic, when it is 
sought to veil the ambitious purpose of usurping its sovereignty with the assumed desire to 
afford assistance to the Mexican people in reorganizing themselves, and to give them a pro- 
tection which they have not solicited. 

In these solemn moments an occasion has been presented for the display of the firm 
adhesion of all the states, and of the general will of the immense majority of Mexicans to 
sustain the institutions and the government of the republic. In the face of the invading 
army, in the midst of the perils of war, and in spite of the general confusion occasioned by 
it, the representatives of the people have come from all quarters, so that the regular course 
of public power might not be interrupted. 

In this session congress has, justly and preferably to all els?, engaged its attention in all 
that concerns the war. In its course it has been able to admire the heroic courage and 
constancy of the defenders of Puebla de Zaragoza. It justly acknowledges and declares 
that they have merited well of their country, and that they and the families of those who 
fell should be cared for with special solicitude. 

There they have conquered for the republic a new glory never to be forgotten, and they 
have given to their fellow-citizens a noble example to imitate. They will ever serve for 
models to all good Mexicans, to enable them, whatever may be the vicissitudes of war, to 
continue it without being dismayed by any misfortune or terrified by any sacrifice, until 
they obtain the invader's respect for the justice of the cause of Mexico. 

That the contest may be prosecuted without cessation, congress has granted to the execu- 
tive a prolongation of the amplest powers that may be required. 

The chief magistrate, who has defended the rights of Mexico under the most difficult 
circumstances, remains invested with all the plenitude of power given him by the free elec- 
tion of the people and the repeated votes of confidence of the national legislature. We 
doubt not but that, with these testimonials, with the energetic and unanimous co-opera- 
tion of all the states, and with the patriotism of all good Mexicans, he will omit nothing 
that may be necessary to prosecute the contest worthily, until a final victory is effected 
the rights, the sovereignty, and the independence of the republic. 



hing 
.Ifofl 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 385 



Benito Juarez, President of the Mexican republic, to his fellow-countrymen. 

Mexicans : For grave considerations connected with the defence of the nation, I ordered 
our army to evacuate the city of Mexico, withdrawing the abundant materials of war which 
we had collected there, and I ordered that the city of San Luis Potosi should be temporarily 
the capital of the republic. The first of these resolutions was immediately put into execu- 
tion, and the second has likewise been carried into effect by the instalment of the supreme 
government in this city, which possesses so many facilities for carrying on the war against 
the enemy of our glorious and beloved country. 

In Mexico, as in Puebla de Zaragoza, we would have resisted the French, and yielded at 
last to invincible necessity. But it was not expedient to choose voluntarily those adverse, 
though glorious, situations, nor to regard our honor alone, as though we had despaired of 
our fortune. 

Concentrated at one point, as now, the enemy will be weak outside of that ; scattered, 
he will be weak in all quarters. He will see himself compelled to acknowledge that the 
republic is not confined within the limits of the cities of Mexico and Zaragoza ; that life and 
spirit, the consciousness of justice and of strength, the love of independence and of repub- 
licanism, the noble pride aroused against the iniquitous invader of our soil, are sentiments 
diffused throughout the entire Mexican people ; and that the silent and indefinite majority, 
in whose uprising Napoleen III placed the successful issue and the justification of the most 
astonishing enterprise which the nineteenth century has seen, will not rise above a chimera 
invented by a handful of traitors. 

The French were mistaken when they thought they could lord it over the nation at the 
mere sound of their arms, and when they presumed to crown their shameless assumption by 
violating the laws of honor, and when they considered themselves masters of Zaragoza, because 
they had occupied the fort of San Javier. Now, they deceive themselves most miserably 
in flattering themselves that they rule over the country, when they scarcely begin to real- 
ize the enormous difficulties of their inconsiderate enterprise ; since, if they have consumed 
so much time, invested so large sums, and sacrificed so many lives to obtain a few advan- 
tages in the glorious engagements at Puebla, what can they expect when we shall oppose 
them the whole people as an army and the territory of the country as a battle-field ? Did 
Napoleon I master Spain because his troops occupied Madrid and several cities of that king- 
dom? What happened to the French army after having entered the capital of Russia? 
Were not the invaders of those countries ignominiously driven out ? Did it not happen the 
same to the retrograde faction that held in its possession our former capital ? And in what 
of our towns did we not overthrow the power of Spain ? 

Believe me, fellow-countrymen, your valor, your perseverance, your republican sentiments, 
your firm union and adhesion to the government which you have chosen as the depository 
of your confidence, of your power, and of your glorious standard, will suffice to make your 
unjust and perfidious enemies bite the dust. Forget your quarrels ; lay aside your aspira- 
tions, be they reasonable or unreasonable, if on account of them you feel less resolute and 
determined in the defence of your country, because against our country we have no cause 
of complaint. Let us be united, then, and let us spare no sacrifices to save our independ- 
ence and our liberty, those great blessings, without which all the rest are sources of sad- 
ness and shame. Let us be united, and we will be free. Let us be united, and we will 
cause all nations to bless and glorify the name of Mexico. 

BENITO JUAREZ. 

San Lui3 Potosi, June 10, 1863. 



Circular to the governors of the states. 

Department of Foreign Relations and Government. 

The President and his ministers have arrived yesterday in this city. In it the supreme 
government remains established, and here the chief functions of federal power will be dis- 
charged, in accordance with the decree issued to that effect. 

I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the proclamation issued by the President 
in regard to the aforesaid ti ausfer, and I take the liberty of recommending to you to cause 
the greatest possible publicity to be given to this important document. With good reason 
the chief magistrate believes that his voice, on this solemn occasion, will have a faithful 
echo in the hearts of Mexicans. 

'■ -The unequivocal and universal marks of enthusiasm with which the President has been 
greeted on his way and in this city, assure him more and more that the invader of our 
country is abhorred in all quarters, and that our defence will be terrible, unexpected, 
worthy of our cause, and worthy, also, of the victory which must necessarily crown our forces,. 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 25 



386 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

A people can be conquered only because its aggressor has in his hand an insurmountable 
superiority, or because discord rends its bosom, or, in fine, because it regards its danger and 
its future with indolent listlessness. Since the events that have transpired at Zaragoza, the 
French army cannot boast of its pre-eminence in combat. There remain to be considered 
our domestic quarrels or our unpatriotic coldness, since the impotent insurrections of the 
traitorous reaction scarcely merit the name of civil discords ; and as to our indolence, the 
enemy has clearly seen that, since our great civil wars, the whole nation renounces the 
pleasures of an ignominious peace, to rush against the invaders of their native land. 

Union, governor, union with the powers that are its bonds, ought to be promoted and 
affirmed with diligent solicitude ; and a generous oblivion of all that prevents us from de- 
voting ourselves with all the ardor of our nature to the sacred cause of the republic will 
make us great and invincible. 

The President, in order that the virtues recommended in his proclamation may^ take 
deeper root with you, has requested me to address you in regard to a matter of great inter- 
est on this occasion, the first on which I have the honor of communicating with you outside 
of the ancient capital. 

The law of nations, in treating of de facto governments, presumes that they really exist ; 
but it is an evident fact that the spurious authorities imposed by Napoleon III on the peo- 
ple now held or hereafter to be held in subjection by them are not and cannot be the gov- 
ernment of the country, and much less when the legitimate government exists in reality. 
So much for the law of nations. Now, as far as concerns our public law, those false author- 
ities are nothing better than seditious and treasonable. Wherefore, the chief magistrate 
commands me so to declare, and to protest, as in his name I do protest, that the republic 
does not and will not recognize in these supposed functionaries any power or authority 
whatever to bind it by their treaties, agreements, or promises, by their acts, omissions, or 
other means or manner whatsoever ; and that those who execute any authority or commis- 
sion, conferred or consented to by the French, will most undoubtedly be punished in accord- 
ance with the laws of the country. 

Please to accept the assurance of my highest consideration and esteem. Liberty and 

reform ! 

FUENTE. 

San Luis Potosi, June 10, 1863. 



Circular addressed to the foreign diplomatic body in Mexico. 

National Palace, San Luis Potosi, 

June 11, 1863. 
I have the honor of addressing to your excellency certified copies of the proclamation 
just issued by the President, and of the circular addressed by his order to the governors of 
the states, in reference to the transfer of the seat of government of the republic to this city, 
now declared the temporary capital of the United States of Mexico. 

It appears useless to me to repeat to your excellency what I have already officially said, 
that is, that whenever you consider it proper to transfer your residence to this city, you 
will have placed at your disposal all the escort necessary for your person and retinue, which 
will be stationed at proper intervals along the route from the nearest positions to the city 
of Mexico occupied by the constitutional government. 

I am gratified, on this occasion, to be able to renew to your excellency the assurance of 
my consideration and esteem. 

JUAN A. DE LA FUENTE. 



Circular addressed to the foreign consular agent in Mexico. 

National Palace, San Luis Potosi. 

June 11, 1863 

For your information and convenience, I have the pleasure of transmitting to you, b' 
direction of the fresident of the republic, a copy of the proclamation just issued by h" 
and also a copy of the circular addressed by his order to the governors of the state 
reference to the transfer of the seat of government of the nation to this city, aire 
declared the temporary capital of the United States of Mexico. 

I take this opportunity of renewing to you, &c., &c, &c, 

FUEN 




MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 387 

In view of the state of war existing between France and the government of Juarez, 
acting by virtue of the powers which belong to us, declare : 

That from the 6th of September instant, the ports and their outlets, the rivers, harbors, 
roadsteads, creeks, &c. , of the coasts of Mexico, which are not in the occupation of our 
troops, and which still acknowledge the power of Juarez, from the lagoon, ten leagues to 
the south of Matamoras, up to and including Campeche, between twenty-five degrees and 
twenty two minutes north, ninety-nine degrees and fifty-four minutes west, and nineteen 
degrees and fifty-two minutes north, and ninety-two degrees and fifty minutes west, (meridian 
of Paris,) shall be held in a state of effective blockade by the naval forces under our com- 
mami, and that friendly or neutral vessels shall have a delay of twenty-five days to 
complete their cargoes and to quit the places blockaded 

The points excepted from the blockade are Tampico, Vera Cruz, Aivarado, Coatzacoalcos, 
Tabasco, and Carmen. 

Proceedings in conformity with international law and the treaties in force with neutral 
powers will be taken against all vessels which shall attempt to violate the said blockade. 

On board of the frigate Bellona, of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, anchored in 
the roadstead of Sacrificios, the 5th of September, 1863. 

A. BOSSE. 



Mexico, September 30, 1863. 

Mexicans : I have terminated the great mission which the French Emperor intrusted to 
me, and I am now about to leave for France. 

I can assure you that no alteration has been made in the policy of the French Emperor 
to this day. 

In departing from you, I leave you with a general in whom you may have full confidence. 

To form a new constitution, that all might be happy under it, was the object of the 
mission ; but the Emperor's intentions were not fully realized, because they are not suffi- 
ciently known. 

In leaving Mexico, I hope my departure will be the means of opening the eyes of the 
blind (or refractory) among you, and that the false patriots in your midst will be discovered 
in the ruin they seek for their country. Then the true Mexican will find out there are but 
few false Mexicans ; and that there are not many who treat with contempt or disregard 
the existing government. Then the true Mexican will be astonished to see the little num- 
ber of mock patriots, and their proximity to the mire in which they are rapidly falling. 

Be assured that God, whose Providence protects the French arms, will not allow the 
fratricide of the nation. 

Adieu, Mexicans ! I leave with full confidence in the welfare of your country. You 
may be proud, and you may thank Providence that your happiness has been consigned to 
the French Emperor. In leaving, I can say you will not regret placing your happiness in 
his hands. 

FOREY. 



Headquarters at Mexico, October 22, 1863. 

Mexicans : On taking command of the army, I must explain to you that this change of 
commander does not imply any change of politics. 

My mission is to watch over the sincere fulfilment of the manifesto of the 12th of June, 
1863, which contains the essential principles in which the provisional government must 
stand in the direction of public affairs. 

These general principles, which belong to our epoch, and proceed from the instructions 
of the Emperor's government, prove how much our sovereign benevolently interests himself 
for the regeneration of your fine country. 

My task will be easy if you assist me, and I reckon upon it, as you ought to have faith 
in my earnest wish to bring to fulfilment, when the time arrives, each of the promises 
contained in the manifesto alluded to. 

* Have, therefore, confidence in the future. Let every Mexican lay aside the spirit of 
party ; let all unite to establish a stable government in harmony with the ideas of the age, 
•»otected by the French flag wherever its glorious colors wave. 

BAZA.INE, Commander-in-Chief. 



388 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, May 10, 1864. 

Mr. Secretary : Carrying out my purpose of remitting to you the docu- 
ments which may come into my possession, and may contribute to the elucida- 
tion of the grave events which are actually taking place in my country, in the 
important crisis she is now passing through, I have the honor to send to you, 
translated into English, the annexed documents relative to the case of Don 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, ex-general in the Mexican army. By these it 
seems that notwithstanding General Santa Anna had been invited by what in 
Mexico is now called "the regency," which congratulated him on his arrival 
in the country, the general-in- chief of the French army made him leave the 
country upon frivolous pretexts, and the so-called "regency" submitted to this 
determination, as it submits in everything, to the caprice of the invaders, because 
it has neither strength nor existence proper to itself, being merely a vile instru- 
ment of the French. 

For the rest, it appears to me unnecessary to reproduce the web of calumnies 
against the constitutional government, the patriots, and the people of Mexico, 
contained in the proclamation of General Santa Anna, and by which he tries to 
excuse his humiliating submission to the show of government set up by the in- 
vaders of his country. 

I reiterate to you, Mr. Secretary, the protestation of my most distinguished 
consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, <$r., fyc., Sfc. 



Vera Cruz, February 28, 1864. 

On the 2?th instant, at 5 o'clock in the evening, I disembarked in this port, proceeding 
from St. Thomas, where I lived some years, receiving the hospitality which political vicissi- 
tude obliged me to seek in a foreign country. 

On deciding to return to my native soil, I bring with me the intention of co-operating, 
In whatever way I may be able, in the consolidation of the institution which the nation 
has thought proper to adopt, under the beneficent shadow of the throne on which will be 
seated the illustrious prince designed in the sublime counsels of Divine Providence to raise 
the nation from the abyss of misfortune into which she has been plunged by anarchy. The 
regency of the empire may consider my services needless and deliver me the orders it may 
think proper. 

On the installation of the regency I charged General Don Santiago Blanco to declare my 
semtiftients of adhesion, and the satisfaction it gave me to know that a national government 
had been established under the form chosen by the will of the Mexican peple, which com- 
mission he had the goodness to discharge according to my desire. Consequently, I now do 
so directly from this place, to inform the regency that it may rely on my poor services and 
give what orders it pleases to the dean of the Mexican army. 

Please to acquaint the regency with this note, and accept my protestations of considera- 
tion. 

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. 

The Under Secretary of Wab, Mexico city. 



Imperial Palace, Mexico, March 7, 1864. I 

Most Excellent Sir : The regency has received with the most grateful satisfaction yotoM 
note of the 28th ultimo, in which you were pleased to communicate your safe arrival «P 
that port, on the 27th, from St. Thomas, where you have lived for several years. It is 
also informed of the noble feelings which animate your excellency on returning to your 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 389 

country— feelings which were never doubted, both beciuse they demonstrate your patriot- 
ism, and because you had made them known through General Blanco when" the present 
government was installed. 

The regency congratulates your excellency on your return to your native soil, and views 
with the deepest interest your decision to lend it your important services. 

In having the honor to tell you this in reply, it is a satisfaction to me to offer you the 
assurances of my distinguished consideration. 

JUAN DE D PEZA, 
Under Secretary of State and War and Navy Departments. 

His Excellency General of Division Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 



Mexican Expeditionary Corps, Office of the General-in-Chief, 

Mexico, March 7, 1804. 
Monsieur le General : His excellency General Almonte has just sent me a supplement 
to No. 68 of the Indicator, of Orizaba, in which I find, in extenso, the proclamation given 
by you to Mexico, which bears your signature. 

You have broken the pledge signed by you on board the English steamer Conway, and 
have not even thought it your duty to address yourself to the commander-in chief of the 
Franco-Mexican army, who represents France in Mexico. 

You can no longer remain on Mexican soil, and I invite you, as well as your son, to quit 
it Avithout delay. 

I give, in this respect, formal orders to the superior commandant of Vera Cruz, and to 
the admiral commanding in chief the French naval forces in the Gulf, in order that a vessel 
may be placed at your disposal. 

BAZAINE, General. 



Vera Cruz, March 12, 1864. 

General : I received with surprise your excellency's communication of the 7th instant, 
in which you tell me that, because I broke my pledge in causing my manifesto to be 
printed in Orizaba, and for not having addressed myself to your excellency, who, as com- 
mander-in-chief of the Franco-Mexican army, represents France, I must immediately leave 
my country. 

An acc«sation of such a nature compels me to reply to your excellency that you are 
mistaken in what you say. First, because I do not remember to have pledged my word to 
be dumb on returning to my country. I am not acquainted with the French language, 
and on signing, on board the English steamer, the recognition of the intervention and the 
Mexican emperor, Ferdinand Maximilian, as I was directed to do by the commandant of 
this place, I believed myself bound by that promise alone, since I had no intention of 
doing anything on coming, for the reason that Marshal Forey had arranged, in an order in 
my possession, that nothing should be required of me on my arrival, and that 1 should be 
properly treated in every respect. Besides, it was not I who sent my manifesto to be 
printed. Fiiends from the interior who visited me, desirous of knowing my opinion under 
present circumstances, asked me for a copy of my manuscript, which friends, of their own 
accord, published it, assuredly with the best intention, since the document contained 
nothing unfavorable to the new system, but, on the contrary, strengthens it in every respect. 

Having been informed that it could not be printed here, I directed the manuscript, 
signed, to General Almonte, president of the imperial regency, which is the government 
of the nation, recognized by it and some others, including that of your excellency, and did 
not direct it to you, it not being upon any military subject, and because I knew that the 
representative of France is his excellency the Marquis de Montholen, minister plenipoten- 
tiary of the Emperor of the French. 

Wherefore your excellency will understand the profound displeasure which the suppo- 
sition that I had broken my word has produced in me, and that upon this is based, in part, 
the abuse done me in expelling me immediately from the territory of my country, after 
eight years and a half of ostracism, and when my health is latterly so altered. In conse- 
quence of such a procedure, which I cannot misunderstand, and in use of my right, I protest 
formally against the said act of violence against my person, as being both unjust and 
•inhuman, and I will appeal to the government of his Majesty Napoleon III, from whose 
wisdom and equity I do not doubt I shall obtain justice. 

This is all I can say to your excellency in reply to your note ; and offering you assurances 
of my high consideration, I remain, &c, 

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. 



390 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, loell deserving of his country, and general of division of the national 
armies, to his fellow-countrymen : 
Mexicans : How many disturbances, how many misfortunes, have occurred in our coun- 
try since I left you ! Like an impetuous torrent, political passions have broken loose, 
destroying everything and drying up in all directions the sources of our -wealth Never 
have I succeeded in imagining so painful a scene, nor could I ever believe that in the name 
of country and liberty the foundations of society could be so deeply disturbed, displaying 
a flag tbat inspired fear among its children and mistrust among strangers. Ihe beautiful 
Anahuac has been torn to pieces and martyrized bj T the frantic ambition of a band who 
fancied themselves the depositories of liberty and right. It is not the conservative party 
which has invited to our shores the European intervention, but the error and blindness of 
the reformers. 

Fellow-countrymen : In treadiog the soil where I was cradled, in incorporating myself 
with you, it is indispensable that I remind you of the situation in which I left the country 
in separating myself from the power which, by your will, I lately exercised ; I wish the 
truth to be known by the world. 

My government had placed the nation in a brilliant position ; the best relations existed 
with friendly powers ; the army was brilliant for its morale, arms, numbers, and discipline ; 
the fortresses were taken care of, like all the branches of the public administration ; no 
one presented himself at our ports with demands ; the roads were free from robbers, the 
savages kept under, and the nlibusteros frightened ; the dangerous questions with the 
United States of the north relative to boundaries happily terminated ; commerce and agri- 
culture flourished ; neither forced loans nor expropriations were known ; the guarantees 
of peaceful citizens were not a falsehood ; the religion of our fathers was venerated ; no one 
put his hand on the property of the clergy, whose opulence we beheld with pride and 
credit spring up again. Only those among the discontented who live by insurrections 
formed mad desires, casting upon my name unjust aspersions, because I prevented them 
from doing mischief. And what government is forbidden from attempting its preservation, 
which is likewise that of society, as well as maintaining order, which is the happiness and 
advancement of nations? Never can I sufficiently deplore that the ambition of an ill- 
counselled band had reached the supreme power, taking advantage of the ignorance of the 
unwary . 

The misdeeds of the representatives of the liberals have enveloped the church in mourn- 
ing and filled the hearts of the Mexican people with bitterness ; their want of good faith in 
treaties obliged three powerful nations to arm themselves in demand of the justice that 
Avas owing to them. The conservative party is not, therefore, responsible for the late 
events that have taken place in our country. 

It appeared natural that, on finding me at so great a distance from the events, and keep- 
ing so profound a silence, it should be considered strange by them ; but my opponents, 
eager to do me injury, lost no time in showing me at times the enthusiastic friend of the 
intervention, and at other times its enemy, according to the circle in which they acted. 
It would have been easy to confound them with replies and observations, but I was unwilling 
to direct voluntarily public attention toward myself, and resolved to be silent until I trod 
the soil of my country. The long wished for day has arrived, and I am consequently going 
to explain, so that I may be unmistakably judged in everything relating to the crisis that 
we are passing. 

At solemn moments the good man ought to speak the truth with frankness and sincerity. 
It is unquestionable that the excesses of the party who ruled brought about the armed 
intervention, and that it appeared at a time when our society was disturbed. Honest 
people feared for their lives and property, and the honor of their families ; they sought, 
like the shipwrecked mariners, any plank whatever to save themselves That party having 
proclaimed an exaggerated constitution, which they carried out, despair had reached its 
climax. 

Two of the allied nations now suspended their demands, and withdrew. Then the 
afflicted people had recourse to the other that remained in the country, and proifered it a 
friendly hand ; the soldiers of the republic by hundreds joined in brotherhood with those 
whom they looked upon as allies to destroy the domestic tyranny and substitute a better 
order of things. Mexicans who had always given proofs of their patriotism appeared in the 
same ranks; and even the capital, despising the prohibitions and penalties imposed by the 
so-called constitutional government, welcomed the legions of the friendly nation with 
enthusiasm. 

The people, wearied with the anarchy of half a century, with false promisee and fincU 
theories, anxious to have a paternal government, just and enlightened, proclaimed with 
enthusiasm the re-establishment of the empire of the Montezumas by a dynasty of royal 
extraction, voting at once for emperor the illustrious Prince Maximilian, archduke of Austria. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 391 

The demagogues, in their desperation, are exhausting the resources that they are able to 
use, believing that by combating they are defending Mexican independence ; but the day 
will arrive when they will find out that patriotism was not on their side in the present 
struggle. 

The states that have not yet made any manifestation will certainly make it as soon as 
they obtain any protection, and the Mexicans who are now with arms in their hands will 
lay them down on being convinced that nothing is attempted against the nationality, and 
that they are only aggravating the evils which we all lament 

A government, freely elected by Mexicans, being already installed in the capital, good 
patricians are under the obligation to group themselves around it, to clothe it with prestige 
and strength. So sacred a duty brings me here. I come, therefore, to give new proofs of 
the respect I owe to the national will now so in agreement with my belief and conviction. 
The orders that may emanate from that supreme power I shall treat with the decision and 
loyalty with which I have obeyed the nation on all occasions. When . peace is re-estab- 
lished, the country settled to its satisfaction, I shall only ask as a favor that I may be 
allowed to enjoy, in my last days, the quiet that I have not been able to secure in any of 
the situations of my life. 

Fellow-citizens, guard in your memory the magnanimous monarch who has extended to 
you his powerful hand so opportunely and generously. Without his assistance you would 
groan under the depressing and barbarous yoke of the most uncontrolled anarchy. Grati- 
tude is a virtue peculiar to noble minds. 

The attempts that until now have been made, under the republican form , have only brought 
discredit and desolation to the countries of the American continent, while constitutional 
monarchy has given, and continues to give, everywhere, better and more lasting fruit. If 
the flight of liberty is not so lofty under the monarchy as in the republic, the former has 
an advantage that the second does not possess, of being away from political disturbances. 
I am not the enemy of democracy, but of its extravagances. In our history it is shown 
that I was the first to proclaim the republic. I thoaght that I was doing a great service to 
our country, the object always of my adoration, and nothing stopped me until the object 
was attained. But the illusions of youth having passed, in presence of so many disasters 
produced by that system, I will not deceive anybody ; the last word of my conscience and 
my convictions is, the constitutional monarchy. 

My friends, in August, 1855, I abdicated the discretional powers with which I was 
invested by the free will of the people, and emigrated abroad, with the noble view of 
leaving you at absolute liberty to constitute yourselves as you wished, and not to appear an 
oppressor ; by an act of so much self-denial I wished at once to contradict the imputations 
of the malevolent. But from my retirement, at whatever distance, I raised my humble 
prayers to heaven that your passions might be calmed and concord reign among you, with- 
out which the happiness of no human society is possible. At last I return to our country, 
without aspirations of any kind, and I assure you that all the labors of my life will be 
recompensed if I finish my days among you in the midst of peace and prosperity. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, May 31, 1864. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknoAvledge the receipt, yesterday, of your note 
dated the 10th instant, transmitting translations of documents which have reached 
you relating especially to the case of Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, as il- 
lustrative of the political condition of Mexico. 

I beg you to accept my thanks for this attention, with the renewed assurance 
of my most distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Seilor M. Romero, fyc, fye., Sjv. 



392 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

Mexican Legation, 

Washington, May 23, 1S64. 
Mr. Romero presents his compliments to Mr. Seward, and has the honor to 
enclose herewith a slip taken from the New York Tribune of Saturday last, 
containing some letters from Monterey and Matamoras, Mexico. The impar- 
tiality and good common sense with which these letters are written, and at the 
same time the abundance of correct and trustworthy information that they em- 
brace, are the reasons why Mr. Romero thinks proper to send them to Mr. Sew- 
ard, calling, in a particular way, his attention towards them. They are a new 
proof of the great interest that the insurgents of this country have in the success 
of the French army invading Mexico, and show the disposition of the national 
government of that republic towards the United States. 



FROM MEXICO. 



Movements of the Mexican troops. — Vidaurri's stock at La Mesa captured. — His son-in-law, 
Patrick Milmo, in prison ; the decree of President Juarez confiscating his cotton. — The 
rebel land agents and contractors in trouble. 

[From our special correspondent.] 

Monterey, Mexico, April 5, 1864. 
After the flight of Vidaurri, the troops of the Juarez government for a few days flocked 
into the city from all directions, and now appear to be moving again in detached bodies 
for Saltillo, it is said en route for San Luis Potosi. The cavalry and artillery sent in pur- 
suit of Yidaurri have not yet returned, though there is now no need of their remaining 
longer near the Eio Grande, as all the troops of Vidaurri, except a portion of his escort, 
have turned over to Juarez, and have delivered up the fourteen cannon and seven mountain 
howitzers he carried with him when he left Monterey. It is now reported here that 
Vidaurri has escaped into Texas, and is at Laredo, from whence he is expected to go to the 
north, and perhaps to Europe. President Juarez has recovered, not only all the artillery 
that he lost by sending it here, but all of Vidaurri's beside, with a large stock of ammuni- 
tion and n additional supply of small-arms of all sorts. Doblado sent here, after the 
capture of San Luis Potosi, 25 field guns, which were accompanied by 109 wagons and 
carts freighted with ammunition, altogether drawn by some 700 mules. These were fur- 
nished by the state of Guanajuato alone to the liberal government. These guns, with the 
ammunition belonging to them, have been recovered, though the mules are missing. It 
is said that the troops of Juarez have visited Vidaurri's stock rancho, called La Mesa, near 
Lampazos, and, by way of reprisal, have captured his flocks and herds there before his 
agents had time to drive them across the Rio Grande, and to exchange them for cotton 
with the rebel contrabandists of Texas. The liberals have lost nothing by this operation. 
The property of all sorts belonging to the following persons it is commonly thought will 
be confiscated for his treason : Vidaurri ; Rejon, his secretary of state ; Hinojoso, his gen- 
eral ; Quiroga, his colonel of cavalry, and Yudalecio Vidaurri, his son. His son-in-law, 
Patricio (or, in plain English, Patrick) Milmo, is still in prison, and is said to be on trial 
before a military commission. He is reputed to be very wealthy, and to have placed most 
of his money beyond the seas, though he is the owner of large stocks of goods as well as 
other property here and in Matamoras, and, besides, has a large quantity of cotton in Texas, 
purchased with goods on which he paid no tariff to the United States when he sent them 
across the line. He may yet, by claiming its protection, cause the English government 
(as he is an Irishman by birth) to show what action, or rather non-action, it will consider 
proper in the case of a person guilty of a double violation of the laws of neutrality, viz : 
between the United States and the rebels, and between Mexico and her foes, who has car- 
ried on a contraband traffic with the rebels, and at the same time asserts that he has paid 
the duties on the cotton imported by him, not into the treasury of President Juarez, but 
into the treasury of a governor in armed rebellion against him. 

Before this letter reaches you it is probable that you will have received a number of the 
Boldin OJicial de Tamaulipas, containing a decree of President Juarez, declaring all goods 
(cotton of course included) imported into Mexico at the poit of Piedras Negras since March 



* MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 393 

7, at which date Vidaurri was in arms against the national government, and was collecting 
the national tariff on importations, without payiDg it over, to be forfeited for the non- 
payment of the legal duties into his treasury. 

This decree, if enforced, will afford the Juarez government what it most needs — ready 
money. Not less than 12,000 bales of cotton were crossed over into Mexico at Piedras 
Negras about March 7, on which Vidaurri collected (as the Mexican tariff in all amounts 
to $8 per bale) $96,000 in coin. This cotton is worth at Matamoras $200 per bale ; that is 
to say, the gross amount of $2,400,000 in cash. As a matter of course, every conceivable 
appliance will be brought to bear to make the Juarez government recede from this decree, 
and instead of confiscating the cotton, as by law it can rightfully do, to let it pass upon 
the payment of the duties to the lawful government— or, in other words, to take $96,000, 
where it might take $2,400,000. What will be the result of the pressure brought to bear 
remains to be seen. In the mean time, the rebel lead agents and contractors are in great 
trouble. Murphy, who has been supplied with funds by Mr. John Trooling, of San 
Antonio, Texas, to forward saltpetre and lead from Mexico, and others, will now find that 
their contraband trade has been brought to a close. As lead for the rebels west of the 
Mississippi could only be had, since the fall of Vicksburg, from Mexico, and at a greatly 
enhanced price, their agents and sympathizers here are very uneasy at the prospect before 
them. Notwithstanding their hitherto openly expressed desire for the success of the 
French, they now are shamelessly sycophantic to the officers of President Juarez, and omit 
no occasion to show to the Mexican public that they know how to 

"Bend the pregnant hinges of the knee, 
That thrift may follow fawning." 

Poor creatures ! It is rather more distressing than diverting to witness their efforts here, 
especially when it is to be borne in mind that every one who sees them naturally inquires 
why, if they are such earnest advocates of the rebellion, they are not at home fighting 
for it in this its hour of need. By the terms of the rebel government, all who have taken 
the oath to support it, if between 16 and 60 years of age, and absent without leave, are 
deserters, and are stigmatized as such by those who remain in Dixie. The San Antonio 
Herald says of the rebels now in Monterey, and who patronize a little sheet called The 
Morning Star, printed by Swope, whom the rebels in Matamoras assert to be a deserter from 
Duff's command, that "they are few in number, and mostly strapped renegades." This is 
the unkindest cut of all, and, besides, is incorrect. Though they are "renegades" from 
Dixie, they are by no means " few innumber," and " the cry is, still they come." They 
are not in general " strapped," or, as Sheridan expressed it, " money-bound," for many 
of them have made more money than they ever had before, by operations in the contraband 
line, and others have brought off the proceeds of their property with them, but they are 
merely ' 'chivalryites' ' of the class that resemble the war-horse in Job in only one partic- 
ular : they snuff the battle afar off. While here they occupy a decidedly awkward position. 
It is, indeed, an arduous task for men who know that they are stigmatized as "deserters" 
by those they have left behind in Dixie, to talk in favor of the rebellion, and to satisfacto- 
rily account for their absence from the theatre of war. The Mexicans have a great deal 
of quiet amusement at their expense. 

Runaway rebels are accumulating here to such an extent, and the prospect for an increase 
of their numbers is such, that a new hotel is about to be opened. No doubt it will do well 
for some months to come. 

RIO GRANDE. 



Results of the pursuit of Vidaurri. — Luna, Vidaurri' s paymaster, captured. — Milmo still 
under arrest. — Position of the troops. — Temper of the people.— Juarez. — His cabinet. 
— A duel. — A military execution. 

[From our special correspondent.] 

Monterey, April 14, 1864. 

The pursuit of Vidaurri resulted in the capture of his carriage, of a portion of the eagle 
dollars he took with him, together with all his artillery and ammunition, and in the pro- 
nouncing of his troops in favor of Juarez. The pursuing party has returned, bringiDg with 
it the captured guns, and accompanied by the force that joined it. Don Pepe Luna, 
Vidaurri's paymaster, has been taken, and is now here in person. Vidaurri's son-in-law, 
Milmo, is still under close arrest, and in the mean time the government is causing his 
account-books to be thoroughly examined, with a view of ascertaining whether he has in 
fact ever paid any duties into the national treasury on the immense stocks of goods ini- 



394 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

ported by him, especially those he has sent into Texas, and also whether he has any funds 
of his father-in-law in his hands. The Saaristas believe that for years past Vidaurri has 
been a silent partner of Milmo, and will spare no effort to prove it, as, in case such should 
turn out to be the fact, the government will confiscate. 

The cavalry force that assembled here, together with a portion of the infantry, have 
gone up to Saltillo, and will probably advance further, as some 7,000 troops, composed 
chiefly of Reactionaries, commanded by Mejia, now are assembled in the city of San Luis 
Potosi, and appear to be preparing to make a move. General Gonzalez Ortega, with his com- 
mand, is watching them, while Doblado is in Saltillo. Still, quite a considerable force 
remains here. The marching to and fro of the regiments through the streets, the per- 
petual blare of the trumpets sounding the calls, and the music of the military bands at 
night on the Plaza Mditar, all remind a stranger that the country is involved in war. 
President Juarez has gained a very considerable accession to his army since he came here, 
and is daily receiving accessions to his ranks. The common people (plebe) of northeastern 
Mexico are not only patriotic, but are intensely republican. Though the mercantile class 
may be disposed to give up or to make terms with the French, they will never willingly 
bend the knee to a foreign invader. They look with a pride, blended with a personal 
affection, to President Juarez as a fit leader for them in their desperate struggle for the 
maintenance of a republican form of government. He is an Indian of unmixed race. His 
personal integrity has never been called in question. He is a thoroughly educated and 
enlightened man . He has ever stood by his country with a loyal devotion and a cour- 
ageous endurance. 

In coming yeais, when mankind shall have so progressed that individuals will take 
position chiefly on account of their moral worth, how much loftier place on the page of 
history will this Indian Juarez occupy than Napoleon III ! He has never robbed his own 
nor sought to despoil any other country of its liberties. No blood stains his conscience, 
no ill-gotton wealth soils his hands. In all the relations of life, as a husband, as a father, 
as a private citizen, as the incumbent of high public trusts, and, lastly, as the chief magis- 
trate of a republic, he has earned the reputation of being an honorable man. Can any 
sycophant of Napoleon III say as much of him ? 

Owing to the existing condition of affairs, President Juarez's cabinet at present consists 
of only three individuals, in whose hands are confided the functions of government. Sr. 
Lerdo de Legada is minister of foreign affairs, &c. ; Sr. Iglesias is minister of finance, &c. ; 
and Gen. Negrete is minister of war and marine. The duties which would devolve upon 
a cabinet, if full, are divided among out them. Sr. Prieto is the postmaster general, but in 
Mexico the incumbent of that office does not have a seat in the cabinet. 

On Monday last all the merchants interested in the contraband trade with Texas, as I 
am informed, held a sort of consultation as to what they should do in relation to the decree 
of President Juarez declaring all the cotton imported, on which the tariff has been paid to 
Vidaurri when in open rebellion, instead of into the national treasury, to be forfeited. 
They concluded to pay the tariff over again to the national government under protest. 
Whether President Juarez's government will accept this proposal or not remains to be seen. 
My own opinion is that it will, and that even after that they will go to intriguing in favor 
of the French. All the rebels and contrabandists here are in favor of the French. It is true 
that just now they pay court to Juarez and his friends, because they know that so much 
of Dixie as lies west of the Mississippi could not hold out for a month after the stoppage of 
the trade with Mexico ; still written proofs against them are abundant. "What position did 
they occupy in regard to the French while Vidaurri was in power ? What grouud does 
the rebel press of Texas hold in regard to the French even now ? 

It is stated that on Monday evening last a duel was fought between Colonel Juan Varra, 
of Juarez's forces, and Comimndante, i. e., Major Rifael Herrera, formerly of ViJaurn's com - 
mand, at the lower suburbs of this city. The weapons used were Colt's revolvers. The 
ground of the quarrel is not stated, but it is supposed that Colonel Varra denounced Major 
Herrera because he thought that Major H. had been the cause of his having been exiled some 
time since by Vidaurri. My informant states that the duel was fought by permission of one 
of the high officers of the government, who witnessed it in person. Colonel Varra was 
fired at and missed three times by his antagonist without returning a shot, and, therefore, 
he suggested to his adversary to load up the three chambers that had been discharged, and 
they would proceed to fight in earnest. Upon this Major H. professed himself satisfied, 
and made some acknowledgments, and the officer who permitted the duel forbade it to pro- 
ceed further. I tell the tale as I got it from a respectable informant, who believed it to 
be true, and who had conversed with one of the parties immediately after the affair was 
over. This is an unusual occurrence in Mexico, where the law against duelling is severe. 
I am told that one who lights a duel here is subject to imprisonment for life and a forfeiture 
of his whole estate. 

On this morning, at 6 o'clock, Martin Garcia, said to have beenacommandanteormajor 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 395 

under Mejia, was shot by a file of soldiers at the back of the citadel. He was executed 
under the sentence of a court-martial on account of his having been guilty of high treason, 
as well as concerned in the assassination of a late governor of San Luis Potosi. Quite a 
considerable body of soldiers under arms were assembled to witness the execution. The 
citadel (or Black Fort, as the Americans have termed it) consists of the massive walls of an 
unfinished church about sixteen feet high, built of an almost white stone, the abutments 
or square columns intended to support the arches of the roof inside being a little higher 
than the incomplete walls. These walls are in the middle of a field-work (lately repaired) 
surrounded by a dry ditch. The prisoner was made to kneel blindfold, with his face turned 
toward the outside of the rear wall, the bullet-marks on which showed it had been the 
scene of other executions, and was shot in the back of the head (chiefly) as well as through 
the body by a file of six men. Two stepped up after he had fallen forward on his face, and 
fired into him again. It is said that he was shot in the back because such is the sentence 
for treason, of which, as well as of assassination, he had been found guilty. A priest attended 
him to the last moment. As he lay a stream of blood flowed down the sloping ground 
beyond his feet. Quite a number of women were present. The spectators showed no levity. 

Senor Don Jesus Masia Benites y Penillos went into office to-day under the appointment 
of President Juarez as the governor and commartdanie militar of the state of Nuevo Leon. 
He has hitherto been a highly respectable merchant of Linares, and has filled the office of 
first alcalde of that city. 

Last night a refreshing rain fell on this parched and arid region, and gentle showers have 
continued to fall at intervals during the day. At sunset this evening the Silla mountain 
was still enveloped in a cloud. 

RIO GRANDE. 



Arrival of Senor Iglesias, Juarez's minister of finance.— Good understanding between tire 
Mexican and American authorities. — Interesting news from the interior. — Vidaurri and 
the rebels of Texas. — Mr. Quintero, the rebel agent, in Monterey. — Major Simeon Hart, 
the rebel cotton agent, and his cotton. — Monterey the seat of the constitutional gov- 
ernment of Mexico. 

[From our special correspondent] 

Matamoros, April 25, 1864. 

On yesterday afternoon the quiet of this city was interrupted by the firing of a salute. 
Upon inquiry it was ascertained that the cause of the salute was the arrival of Senor Igle- 
sias, the minister of finance of President Juarez's cabinet. The objects of his visit are 
unknown to the public. 

The recent correspondence between Major General Herron and the Mexican authorities, 
together with the cordial . good understanding that manifestly exists between them, is a 
source of unutterable anguish to the rebels now in Mexico, and to the merchants engaged 
in the Piedras Negras trade. They are perplexed and bewildered. Their confidence is 
shaken ; and, in short, they know not what to do. The tact and address of Major Generals 
McClernand and Herron, in their intercourse with Mexico, has damaged the rebel cause on 
this frontier almost as much as a victory. 

The news from the interior is quite important. General TJraga has gained another suc- 
cess over the French at or near the city of Gaudalajara. General Purfirio Diaz has reap- 
peared on the Pacific slope at the head of a well-armed and well-equipped force of 10,000 
men. A movement is said to be in progress by the combined forces of Doblado and Gon- 
zalez Ortega against San Luis Potosi, which is held by 1,200 French and 5,800 reactionaries 
nnder Mejia ; and, best of all, it is reported that the French have abandoned Tampico. 
Certain it is that the Juarez government is now in excellent spirits. It has, though they are 
intentionally kept scattered, almost twice as many troops in the field as the French have, and is 
assured of the loyalty of a vast majority of the people to a republic in form of government. 
Besides, the despatches from General Bazaine to Almonte, which were recently intercepted, 
show that the Church party (reactionaries) are upbraided as having deceived and misled the 
French government in every particular. General Bazaine appears to have given utterance 
to his dissatisfaction with them in very strong and emphatic terms, and to have charged 
that the persons at different points in Mexico, recommended by Almonte, Miramon, and 
others, to the confidence of the French generals, were no better than robbers and assassins, 
devoid of all faith and honor. The worst thing of all for the French cause is that the 
charges made by General Bazaine are true. What is Marquez but a cold-blooded murderer ? 
What is Mejia but a robber, though on a large scale ? What Mexican is there to be found 



396 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

among those that have betrayed their country that have an unblemished private character ; 
that commands the confidence and respect due to a gentleman ? 

The most cheering fact of all to the republicans ot Mexico is the sanction that has been 
given by the Emperor to the policy of General Bazaine in regard to the clergy. Now, since 
the clergy of the reaccionario party find that they will not be allowed tq take the prominent 
position in politics they desired, and since they have ascertained from the head of the 
French government that the nationalized property of the church would not be restored, 
they have no further use for the French. From this time forward we may expect to see 
the troops of the church party going over to Juarez in force. What motive have they to 
fight against Juarez any longer. 1 " Why should they aid the French when the secular prop- 
erty of the church — the real bone of contention, so far as they are concerned — would not 
in case of success fall into the hands of the clergy (of their party,) who could reward them 
from its revenue ? 

In this connexion it is but just to remark that the parochial clergy of Mexico are ingen ; 
eral liberals, and that the portion of the clergy that beloug to the reaccionario or church 
party are in most cases either prelates or members of the monastic orders. The rank and 
file, if I may so express it, of the clergy of the country, to their honor be it recorded, are 
republicans. It was so in the revolution of Mexico against old Spain. Priests, who, instead 
of living in monasteries or palaces, reside among the people, must think and feel as they do. 
The history of Mexico shows that such have fought for the liberties of their country in 
times past, and hence may be expected to do so in the future. 

Not only such of the clergy as belong to the reaccionario party, but the prominent military 
men on their side, are greatly disaffected. They have been and are overslaughed on all 
occasions. Mexican generals, even if they are traitors to their country, don't like to be 
put under the command of French colonels. Still, as the French place no confidence in 
them, such must continue to be the practice. The pride of the reaccionario officers must be 
often wounded by this course of procedure. How long they will submit to it remains to 
be seen. Yet it is difficult to perceive how the French can change their policy toward their 
Mexican confederates at this time. General Bazaine knows that their hopes for the resto- 
ration of the nationalized church property, from the revenues of which they expected to be 
rewarded, have been dashed. He knows that their pride has been perpetually lacerated by 
their higher officers having been put under the commaud of French officers, their inferiors 
in rank, and that they have ever been treated with distrust. He is aware that very many 
of them are only watching for a chance to make terms with President Juarez, and to turn 
against him. How, then, can he change his policy and treat them as equals in whom he 
reposes full confidence ? 

Since Vidaurri fled into Texas, the forces of Mejia (some 5,800 men) which were at Ma- 
telmala and were prevented from advancing by the forces of Gonzalez Ortega, which threat- 
ened to get between them and San Luis Potosi, have fallen back to San Luis Potosi. They 
are now further from Monterey than before, and, as has been stated, instead of attempting 
to attack, are threatened with an attack from the combined commands of Doblado and 
Gonzalez Ortega. President Juarez has gained great advantages of late, and may well be 
sanguine. 

It is reported that on heaiiug that Vidaurri had escaped on horseback, and with only 
the clothes he wore, to Larado, Texas, the rebel commandant at San Antonio sent a carriage 
and escort to bring him to that place. The rebels will now go to intriguing to get him 
back into power, and, before they suspect it, will probably be involved in hostilities with 
the government of President Juarez. They must have lead, saltpetre, sulphur, and other 
articles, contraband of war, which they have heretofore been only able to get through 
Piedras Negras. Indeed, such was the demand for lead by the rebels west of the Mississippi, 
that it is now worth 100 per cent, more at Monterey than formerly. Under Vidaurri's rule, 
as he paid no regard to the decrees of President Juarez' 6 government, except so far as they 
suited his convenience, they got through Piedras Negras everything they could raise, either 
the cotton or credit to purchase. 

The position of the rebels who have, on various pretexts, got out of the so-called south- 
ern confederacy into Mexico, is peculiarly embarrassing now since Juarez is in power at 
Monterey. I hat they are in favor of the French invasion is perfectly well known. One 
of their leading papers in Texas not long since, when under the delusion that Vidaurri, 
aided by the French, would certainly defeat Juarez, openly boasted that Mr. J. S. Quintero, 
the rebel lead agent residing at Monterey, had done more to bring about the invasion of 
Mexico by the French than any other one person. No doubt he did his best for the French. 
Whether his having done so, and his having made contracts with Mr. Oliver, of Monterey, 
for lead, in violation of the plighted faith of the Juarez government, which has never sanc- 
tioned the trade in contraband articles with the rebels, will enable him to continue at Mon- 
terey and play the same part near the constitutional government that he did at the court 
of Vidaurri, remains yet to lie Been. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 397 

It is a little singular that so many of the leading rebels of Texas, of the class that have 
had to do with the cotton and money of the insurrectionary government, are now either in 
or very near to Mexico. The ex-collectors of Eagle Pass and Brownsville are there. Major 
Russell, the quartermaster of General Bee's staff, is there on a two months' sick leave. 
Major Simeon Hart, the Confederate States cotton agent in Texas, is at Eagle Pass ; so is 
Captain George H. Giddings. William G. Hale, esq. , is also reported to be there, engaged 
in for warding cotton for a wealthy firm in Matamoras. It is well for these gentlemen to 
be safe. When all of their cotton is across the Rio Grande they can follow it, and the rank 
and file left behind will have to look out for themselves. After a season they can come 
in and take the oath under a special pardon, as the general one is not broad enough to 
cover their case, and they will then have the means at command to live handsomely where 
they may please ; or else they can live abroad. By-the-bye, has Mr. Simeon Hart a house 
in your city ? His brother, Mr. Henry Hart, who is reputed to be in business in New York, 
has been through Texas since the rebellion began, and is said to have returned. It has 
lately been discovered, in the course of a quarrel between Majors Russell and Hart, that a 
large quantity of cotton which was crossed into Mexico, marked H. H , with M. K. below, 
though supposed to belong to the rebel government, was really the property of one or both 
of the Harts and of Thomas F. McKinney, who was one of the commissioners not long since 
sent out to Vidaurri to negotiate for the reopening of the Piedras Negras trade. Has any 
of this cotton reached New York ; and if so, to whom was it consigned ? 

By the latest arrival from Monterey the news has come that President Juarez has con- 
cluded to make that city his capital. It is, perhaps, more accessible to all the points with 
which he has occasion to keep up communication than Saltillo. 

RIO GRANDE 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State. 

Washington, May 25, 1864. 
Mr. Seward presents his compliments to Senor Romero, and acknowledges, 
with sincere thanks, the receipt of the slip from the New York Tribune, of last 
Saturday, containing very much interesting information concerning affairs in 
Mexico, and the sentiment of friendly sympathy which is entertained by the 
national government towards the United States. 

Senor M. Romero, Sfc., 3fc., 8fc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Sezvard. 
[Translation.] 
Private.] Washington, May 24, 1864. 

Esteemed Sir : The Herald, of New York, of the 18th April last past, published 
an account of what occurred at a dinner which several distinguished persons of 
that city, friends of Mexico, had the kindness to give me on the 29th of March 
last. That portion of such account which relates to the remarks which I made 
when called upon to speak by the persons who honored me with that demonstra- 
tion, attributes to me some opinions which I never even thought of uttering, 
and is, in general, so little exact that 1 think it proper to make known to you, 
although this can have only an indirect bearing on the official business of the 
department in your charge, that the enclosure herewith contains a faithful nar- 
rative, written in Spanish, of all that passed at that dinner, and an exact trans- 
lation of what on that occasion I had the honor to say in English. 
I am, sir, very respectfully your faithful servant, 

M. ROMERO. 
Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., fyc, fyc. 



398 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 

Washington, May 25, 1S64. 
My Dear Sir : I beg to thank you for the authentic report, transmitted with 
your note of the 24th instant, of the proceedings at the banquet giren to you by 
certain distinguished citizens of New York, and Avhich contains an exact trans- 
lation of the remarks you made on that occasion. 

Although your note is unofficial, I shall place it with the printed report on 
the files of the legation of Mexico in the Department of State, to protect you 
from the misapprehensions which might result from the incorrect published reports 
of your remarks to which you allude. 

I am, my dear sir, very tnxly yours, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Senor Matias Romero, Sj-c., fyc, fyc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 



[Translation.] 
Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, May 28, 1S64. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to transmit you a correct translation, in 
the English language, of the document of which I sent you a copy in Spanish, 
annexed to my letter of the 26th instant. 

I also enclose you a copy, in English, for the information of your department, 
of some remarks which I made in New York, about the middle of last December, 
upon the causes which have brought about the present situation of the Mexican 
republic. 

I renew to you, sir, the assurances of my very distinguished consideration, 

M. ROMERO. 



Speech delivered by Senor Rmiero, the Mexican minister to the United States, at a banquet given by 
him in Nmo York on the IQth of December, 1863. 

On the ICth day of December, 1863, a banquet was given at Delrnonico's by the Mexican 
minister, to his friends in New York, with the object of informing them of the present 
condition of affairs in the Mexican republic. 

It seems unaccountable, yet it is a fact, that even the most distinguished and learned 
men of this enlightened metropolis are not fully posted up, not only as regards the import- 
ant occurrences now taking place in Mexico, but also as to the condition of affairs of that 
republic — its elements, its tendencies, its politics, and even its inward civilization. 

It was the object of Mr. Romero to invite some of the most distinguished persons of this 
city, who, by their position and antecedents, occupy the front places in social life, to dis- 
cuss with them, in a confidential and friendly manner, Mexican affaiis, and to give them, 
at the same time, some important data upon the internal situation of his country. He paid 
special attention in inviting those who were considered as the leaders of the different politi- 
cal parties into which this nation is now divided, with the view that it might not appear 
as if any preference had been given to any one of these parties, and that the banquet might 
not have any other character but the one proposed. 

The following persons were then invited and assisted to the banquet : 

Mr. Hiram liarney, a prominent member of the republican party, friendly to the present 
administration, and now collector of the custom-house of New York. 

Mr. Augustus Schell, a gentlemen much esteemed in this city, and a distinguished mem- 
ber of that portion of the democratic party who defend with the greatest warmth and 
interest the institution of slavery. lb' was formerly collector of the New York custom- 
house under the administration of Mr. Buchanan. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. .399 

Mr. John Van Buren, son of the ex-President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, a 
celebrated orator and lawyer of this city, and a prominent member of that part of the 
democratic party which does not sympathize so strongly with slavery, and also a personal 
and political friend of Governor Seymour, of this State. 

Mr. William C. Bryant, one of the most distinguished poets of the United States, mem- 
ber of the radical republican party, and chief editor of the EveniDg Post, of this city. 

Mr. David Hoadly, president of the Panama Bailroad Company, a person of conservative 
ideas, and high standing in this city for his integrity, honesty, and industry. 

Mr. James W. Beekman, a gentleman of independence, of this city, descendant of one 
of the first Dutch families who colonized this island, and much respected for his honorable 
antecedents, and his constant desires to do good wherever his influence and his services 
are wanted. 

Mr. William E. Dodge, jr., distinguished merchant of this city, and Mr. John H. Ham- 
ersley, one of the ancient families of this city, and a gentleman of independence and high 
personal qualities. 

The three last-named gentlemen belong to no particular political party, and only repre- 
sent the wealthy and higher classes of New York, whose ideas are above the mercantile 
community. * 

The following gentlemen were also invited, who, either by sickness, or for having pre- 
vious engagements, were .unable to attend the banquet : Mr. George Opdyke, mayor of 
the city; Major Generals George B. McClellan and John A. Dix; Mr. John C. Cisco, sub- 
treasurer of New York ; Mr. George Bancroft, the eminent historian of the United States ; 
Mr. James T. Brady and Mr. William M. Evarts, both celebrated lawyers of this city, and 
a prominent member of the democratic party the former, and of the republican party the 
latter. 

Among the Mexican gentlemen that were present at the banquet, besides Mr. Romero, 
were SeQor Don Ignacia Mariscal, secretary of the legation ; Doctor Don Juan N. Navarro, 
consul general of Mexico in the United States, and Senor Don Jose' Ramon Pacheco, formerly 
Mexican minister at Paris, and several times secretary of state of the republic of Mexico. 

The banquet was given in the handsomest apartment at Delmonieo's. At the head of 
the dining-room the flag of Mexico on the right, and that of the United States on the left, 
might be seen gracefully entwined together, and under each of them respectively were 
placed the portraits of Presidents Juarez and Lincoln. At 6 o'clock, the hour appointed 
for dinner, all the guests who had accepted the invitation were present, and after a few 
minutes of conversation, during which Mr. Romero presented to them the Mexican gentle- 
men attending the banquet, and showed them a collection of engravings representing the 
most important views of the city of Mexico, which were upon a table of the reception room, 
he begged them to walk into the dining-ioom, where everything was already waiting for 
them. 

They were seated in the manner which had been previously arranged as follows : 

SeQor Romero. 

Mr. Barney. Mr. Schell. 

Mr. Van Buren. Mr. Hamersley. 

Senor Navarro. Senor Mariscal. 

Senor Pacheco. Mr. Dodge. 

Mr. Hoadley. Mr. Bryant. 

Mr. Beekman. 

The service at table was the best that could be offered by Delmonieo's celebrated hotel, 
as well as the best that could be procured in the abundant market of this city. 

The wines were also abundant and of the best quality. The guests did full justice to the 
viands, and were perfectly satisfied with the ability and good taste displayed by the director 
of the culinary department. Feelings of the most perfect cordiality and good will prevailed 
at table. 

After the dessert, Mr. Beekman arose and said : 

"I propose, gentlemen, that we drink the health of the gentleman who has honored us 
by inviting us to this agreeable meeting ; the worthy representative of a neighboring and 
a friendly nation, which while it struggles for its independence, struggles also in defence of 
the principles which the people of the United States have always sustained and defended." 

This toast was received with general acclamations, and then Mr. Romero responded to it 
in the following terms : 

Gentlemen : I have never felt more embarrassed than I feel on the present occasion, in 
endeavoring to respond to the generous sentiments which our distinguished friend has just 
expressed towards my country and myself. Nor have I ever so much regretted as I do now, 
not possessing adequately the English language, that I might duly express the ardent and 
sincere desires that inspire me for your health and welfare, and for the peace, prosperity, 



400 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

and happiness of your great country. Since our mutual friend has made allusion to Mexico, 
allow me, gentlemen, to make a few remarks in regard to that nation, so favored hy nature, 
and so little known, and so greatly misrepresented abroad. 

The internal condition of Mexico is scarcely understood or appreciated in this country or 
in Europe. The general impression seems to be, that we are an uncivilized heterogeneous 
people, constantly divided by petty personal feuds and ambitions ; always engaged in 
making pronunciamientos ; entirely wanting in patriotism and high-toned sentiments ; 
altogether unfitted for self-government ; utterly incapable of developing our great natural 
resources, and therefore unworthy of the sympathy or respect of mankind. Gentlemen, 
there never has been an opinion more unjustly entertained; never a judgment more 
unfounded. 

All of you are aware, gentlemen, that when Mexico was a colony of Spain, it was the 
policy of the Spanish government to rule the country through the instrumentality of the 
Catholic clergy. With this object in view, the clergy were clothed with every kind of 
personal privilege, and were allowed to monopolize a very large portion of the real estate 
and other property of the country. They were also the only educated class, and all instruc- 
tion of the masses was left entirely in their hands. By these means they maintained a 
profound influence over the consciences of the ignorant people, and they constituted an 
aristocracy more powerful and more deeply rooted than any other upon the face of the 
broad earth. When, in 1810, the early Mexican patriots proclaimed the independence of 
their country from the Spanish yoke, the clergy became alarmed by a movement in which 
it had not, as an association, taken the initiative, and which, if it should terminate in the 
overthrow of the Spanish government and the establishment of a national government, 
might place in peril their numerous privileges, their immense riches, and their controlling 
influence. They therefore determined to oppose the movement. I do not believe it neces- 
sary to tell you, gentlemen, that so long as the Mexican clergy threw the immense weight 
of their influence on the side of the Spanish government, the Spaniards were everywhere 
triumphant. But while the struggle was going on in Mexico, a great change took place in 
Spain. The Spanish cortes, animated by liberal ide is, had issued various decrees, seriously 
diminishing the personal privileges of the clergy, and had passed laws providing for the 
desamortization of their immense property, for the benefit of the nation at large. The 
Mexican clergy then began to change their ground. They saw at once how much they 
would have to lose if the laws passed by the Spanish cortes should be carried into effect in 
Mexico ; and believing at the same time that they could organize a government which 
would be fuliy under their own control, they determined to adopt the cause of independ- 
ence, and with their aid the independence of Mexico was then achieved. 

Since that time a fearful struggle has been going on, between the clergy on the one side, 
who have sought to control the national government, and, on the other, the few enlight- 
ened, patriotic men who, seeing that there was no hope that Mexico could become what 
nature designed her to be, unless liberal principles should be adopted, and an entire sepa- 
ration be effected from church influence and control, began to labor for the establishment 
of a liberal, popular government, which should keep down the ambition and usurpations 
of the clergy, always directed to the promotion of their own interests, without any regard 
for the welfare of the country. 

The result of such a struggle in its earlier efforts could not be doubtful, taking into 
consideration the power, the influence, and the resources of each party respectively. When- 
ever the liberal party succeeded in establishing, through the ballot-box, a legal govern- 
ment — a government which would not favor the interests of the clergy, when these were 
opposed to the interests of the country — a government in favor of promoting foreign immi- 
gration, of opening highways, constructing railroads, authorizing the free and public 
exercise of all religions, the freedom of the press, of reducing import duties, favoring all 
branches of commerce — in a word, of developing all the natural wealth and vast resources 
of Mexico — the clergy immediately instigated a pronunciamiento against that government, 
and brought to bear every influence to secure its overthrow. 

Such a state of affairs, however, could not last forever. While the struggle was going 
on, the people began to grow enlightened. Everybody saw that the money of the clergy 
was constantly used to foment revolutions, to subvert the public peace, and to shed the 
blood of the innocent people for the iniquitous purpose of maintaining interests and pre- 
serving privileges entirely incompatible with the well-being of the country. 

Thus, the liberal party, which at the beginning was small in numbers and weak in 
power, became stronger every day, until, finally, in the year 1860, it had become strong 
enough to crush entirely the church party, and to re-establish, it was hoped forever, con- 
stitutional law and constitutional government throughout the whole extent of Mexican 
territory. This was done without foreign aid, and even against the sympathies and 
encouragement of European powers, who had ever lent all possible aid to the church party. 
At the same time all the special privileges of the clergy were repealed, aud the church 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 401 

property was declared to be national, and was sold to the people at a low nominal price. 
This latter measure had a double object. While the Mexican government proposed to dis- 
arm the clergy, by taking from them the principal weapon they had used in their efforts 
to excite pronunciamientos and disturb the public peace, it desired to render useful to the 
country the immense wealth which had been accumulated by the church, and which, being 
withdrawn from free circulation, and monopolized by a class indisposed or incapable of 
making it productive, had only been a source of evil, and a perpetual barrier to the nation. 

Thus, when it was generally believed abroad that we were at war without plausible 
motive, only to promote petty personal ambitions, we were really working out one of the 
most thorough of revolutions, and one of the most necessary for the true prosperity of 
the people of Mexico. 

I desire to be distinctly understood, gentlemen, that we have never raised any issue with 
the church party of Mexico on spiritual questions. Our disagreement has been wholly with 
reference to temporal affairs, and has not, in any manner, involved the dogmas of the 
Catholic faith. 

The church party has wished, as an association, to rule the country for their own advan- 
tage. We have sought to establish a perfect independence between church and state, to 
confine the church to spiritual affairs, and to make it subordinate to the state in temporal 
matters. 

Thus, when we had reason to believe that our loDg civil wars had ended — for we had 
removed, even to the roots, the sole cause of all our past misfortunes — and that we were 
now about to enjoy the blessings of peace — the only thing needed by Mexico to become a 
prosperous nation — new misfortunes, new calamities of a different kind suddenly fell 
upon us. 

The church party of Mexico, seeing that with their own means it was impossible to make 
any further resistance, or to foment- any further revolutions, and having in view, as they 
always have had, only their own advantage, regardless of the welfare of their country, 
resolved to send emissaries to Europe for the purpose of interesting in their behalf some of 
the principal European governments, in order to be by them restored to power in Mexico. 

These emissaries represented that the church party were in favor of a conservative gov- 
ernment — a monarchical government— modelled after the European system ; while the 
liberal party were in favor of democratic institutions, and sympathized fully with the views 
and principles of the United States. On this point I cannot do otherwise than acknowledge 
that the emissaries were right. The liberals of Mexico do believe that if we can succeed in 
developing there the great principles which have made the United States so great and 
prosperous, Mexico will reach the same end by using the same means. 

These emissaries, however, exaggerated the influence of the church party in Mexico. 
They said the liberal government of that country was tyrannical, oppressive, and unpopular, 
and governed only by force ; and they even affirmed that the mere moral force of Europe 
would be sufficient to overthrow it, and restore the church party to power. They further 
promised that, after overthrowing the liberal government, the church party would establish 
a government which should be entirely under the influence of the European nations which 
would aid them in their purpose. 

These false representations of the emissaries led to the allied expedition of France, Eng- 
land, and Spain, which, assuming pretexts utterly insufficient and unjust, disembarked at 
Vera Cruz in December, 1861. 

When the English and Spanish generals and commissioEers, after having resided some 
time in Mexico, saw that the state of things in that country was entirely different from 
what the church-paity emissaries had represented to their respective governments, they 
decided without hesitation to withdraw, with their forces, from the country ; and so clear 
to them was the deception practiced upon their governments, that they took the delicate 
step of withdrawing from the alliance of their own accord, without consulting with their 
superiors, and without even waiting for instructions from their governments, although 
acting in an affair so full of difficulties and of ulterior complications. 

I have reached, gentlemen, without intending it, the actual situation in Mexico ; and 
under this head I beg to be allowed to say a few words more. 

The French army did not retire from Mexico with the armies of England and of Spain, 
for the French government had other objects in view, and it was fully determined to ac- 
complish them. The Emperor of the French believed at that time, and perhaps he still 
believes, that the United States were permanently divided, and that circumstances might 
take such a shape as to afford him the opportunity of acquiring Texas, of recovering Louisi- 
ana, and of possessing the mouth of the Mississippi. 

To accomplish this end, it was necessary to obtain a foothold on this continent, at a point 
as near the United States as possible, and particularly to Louisiana and Texas — a point of 
departure where he could collect, securely and conveniently, a large army and a large naval 
force, and form a base of supplies. The Emperor of the French, therefore, directed himself, 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 26 



402 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

not so much against Mexico as against the United States. How far he has succeeded in his 
plans is now a matter which belongs to history. It is sufficient for me to say, that by means 
of his Mexican expedition he has been able to collect, on the American continent, almost on 
the southern frontier of the United States, a large French army, and has sent to the Gulf of 
Mexico a very considerable French squadron, larger than the objects of the expedition war- 
rant, and much larger than could have been necessary for any purpose connected with 
Mexico— a country that has no navy ; and all this has been accomplished, strange to say, 
without any remonstrance, without any protest, and even without any demonstration of 
interest or concern on the part of the United States. 

What the end of these complications will be it is very difficult to foretell. So far as 
relates to the occupation of Mexico, I am entirely sure that the Emperor of the French 
will soon be undeceived, and will learn that he has undertaken more than he can accom- 
plish, and that when he sees the complete failure of the farce which his agents are now 
playing in the city of Mexico, he will rind himself compelled to retire from a country which 
he has so unjustly invaded. With regard to ourselves, therefore, there can be only one 
result, that will be verified sooner or later. It will inevitably be the triumph of the holy 
cause of Mexican independence. 

The French will soon fail of even the aid of the church party. That party hoped, and. 
to a certain extent, with reason, that when the French army should occupy the city of 
Mexico, the imperial government would annul the laws of reform issued by the liberal gov- 
ernment of that republic, and, the first thing, would restore to the clergy the property that 
had been taken from them, and nationalized and sold. But it happened that among the 
persons who had purchased the ecclesiastical property there were a considerable number 
of French subjects, who would be injured by the restitution of that property ; and this 
consideration has led the French government not only not to abrogate the reform laws, 
but to prevent its satellites, who have assumed the name of regency in Mexico, from them- 
selves attempting to abrogate them. If, then, the French government should persist in 
the policy which they have commenced to follow, it will not be long before the church party 
will begin to make as decided opposition to the intervention as they did a year ago to the 
constitutional government. 

In conclusion, there is one remark that cannot be withheld. It appears to me, gentle- 
men, that there exists a striking similarity between the church party of Mexico and the 
pro-slavery party in the United States. The church was there a power stronger than the 
state ; so was slavery in this country. The church has there been the only cause of our 
civil wars ; so now is slavery here. The church party in Mexico, after being conquered by 
the people, solicited foreign intervention, in order to be re-established in power ; so slavery 
in this cuuntry, as I understand, has sought foreign aid even before being conquered by the 
government of the United States. 

This toast was also received with enthusiasm, after which some of the gentlemen present 
begged Mr. Hiram Barney to respond. Mr. Barney arose and said : 

"Gentlemen : After what our friend the Mexican minister, who has given us such import- 
ant information, and has so thoroughly considered the Mexican question, has said, there 
is nothing left that I can add. My official position does not permit me either to express 
my sentiments and my sympathies for Mexico with the vehemence which I feel and with 
the freedom that I would were I in other riicumstances We have not as yet offered Mex- 
ico the aid which it was our duty to give her in the present critical situation, and I really 
do not know whether it is because we would not or because we could not do it I need 
not say that the sympathies of our people are in favor of the Mexican nation, and that we 
hope that instead of Europe being able to establish monarchies in this continent, she may 
see, in a short time, some of the monarchies of the Old World turned into republics." 
[Applause.] 

Mr. Harney took his seat in the midst of acclamations of joy from those around him, 
when Mr. Bryant arose and made the following address : 

"Gentlemen : Of all the atrocities committed in the world since its creation, I do not 
believe that there is any more mean, moie base, or more vile than that of the present French 
Emperor, who, taking advantage of the civil war of the United States, and the wearied 
Mexican republic, has sent from the other continent an army of adventurers, with the object 
of overthrowing the republican institutions which the Mexican people had given to them- 
selves by virtue of their sovereignty, and establishing a monarchy by force, placing at its head 
the stem of one of the most absolute and despotic families ever known upon earth. The 
baseness and villany of this action lias no equal, and its lowness can only be compared with 
the greatness of soul, elevation of sentiments, and pure patriotism with which the Mexicans 
arc endowed, defending the independence of their country and sustaining the constitutional 
government of Juarez, who is now the emblem of that holy cause. I propose, then, gen- 
tlemen, that we drink to the government of Juarez, that eminent patriot who has not 
hesitated to wrestle in defence of a holy cause with a European colossus, and who has be- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 403 

come the representative of patriotism and constancy, presiding now over a government 
which will realize, hy its triumph, the highest hopes for the welfare and prosperity of 
Mexico." [Applause.] 

This toast was as well received as the former ones, and it met with demonstrations of 
great pleasure. 

Several indications were then made to Doctor Navarro, Mexican consul general in the 
United States, to respond to Mr. Bryant's toast, and after stating the difficulty he labored 
under to do so in a foreign language to the eloquent and beautiful address of Mr. Bryant, 
be said that he drank " the health and well-being of the gentlemen present, and the pros- 
perity and happiness of the United States." 

Mr. Schell proposed that Mr. Van Buren, as the most distinguished orator, and a gentle- 
man well versed in the politics of foreign governments, should express the sympathies of 
the United States in favor of Mexico — a proposition that was most favorably received, but 
which unfortunately could not be granted, Mr. Van Buren suffering then an indisposition 
which prevented him from speaking sufficiently loud for the time he thought necessary to 
say anything worthy to be heard by such an audience. 

Mr. Dodge asked Mr. Romero several questions about the extent of Mexican territory 
that the French occupied; upon the so-called " Junta of Notables" who proclaimed the 
empire, and upon various points of importance. Mr. Romero answered, endeavoring to 
make himself heard by all the gentlemen present, in terms which showed that the procla- 
mation of the empire was nothing more than a badly-managed farce, and that the French 
were in a difficult position, which will every day grow worse. 

He availed himself also of the occasion to speak upon other points he had omitted in his 
address, and which were listened to by all with demonstrations of the most intense interest. 

Shortly after 10 o'clock Mr. Romero arose from the table, and thus terminated a meet- 
ing in which all were highly pleased and satisfied, and which, owing to the object in view, 
as well as the gentlemen who composed it, cannot be less than of great importance and 
political transcendency, as well as of great interest to those who have any sympathy for a 
people who is struggling for its independence against a European tyrant, disturber of the 
peace of the world. 



Great banquet given to the minuter from the Mexican republic by several of the most distinguithed 
persons of the city of JVeiv York, to express their iympilhy for the cause of Mexico and their 
opposition to French intervention in that republic. 

On the evening of the 29th of March last a banquet was given in this city, at Delmonico's 
hotel, corner of Fourteenth street and Fifth avenue, in honor of Senor Don Matias Romero, 
minister of the Mexican republic, by very distinguished citizens of New York, with the 
view of manifesting their sympathy towards the Mexican nation in the bloody struggle 
they are now carrying on against their invaders. The private character which it 
was considered proper to give to this demonstration, notwithstanding the importance with 
which it was invested, its spontaneity, and a thousand other circumstances, have, perhaps, 
been partly the cause that there has been so little comment on it in the papers. 

We are going to supply this deficiency by referring to all that occurred during the enter- 
tainment so highly expressive at a time when the Archduke Maximilian (as it is asserted) 
is about preparing his voyage to go and sit upon a silver mountain, as Napoleon said, 
instead of upon a throne. Our readers will not think it strange that we enter into so 
minute a description of a dinner if they think that we are not only treating of a great 
culinary triumpli of Delmonico's, of the splendid fine taste shown by those accomplished. 
Amphytrions, but, what is far better, of a frank reproach and a terrible warning given to 
Europe by the people of the United States, represented by the distinguished individuals 
of this metropolis, of whom we shall give an idea afterwards. Now we will enter into the 
facts. 

About a month ago some of those citizens projected a demonstration in favor of the 
Mexican cause, that, without taking cognizance of the policy which circumstances may 
have obliged the government of this country to follow, should manifest the dominant 
feeling in regard to the invasion of Mexico, not only among the great mass of the people 
of the United States, but among those classes especially favored by intelligence, learning, 
position, or fortune. They soon found among their friends the same disposition, and they 
would have collected a very large subscription if the desire they had of carrying out at 
; ' the earliest opportunity their intentions, and other considerations of minor importance, had 
not prevented it. So that, without more delay, the following invitation was sent to 
Washington to Senor Romero : 



404 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



New York, February 1G, 1864. 

Dear Sir : The undersigned, in common with many loyal citizens, feel much interest in 
the present condition of Mexico, that important continental state. 

We cordially sympathize with the people of Mexico in their unequal struggle, and, 
appreciating their bravery and sacrifices, and your services in maintaining the integrity of 
your country, we tender to you, as the faithful representative of Mexico, a dinner in this 
city, on Tuesday, March 29. 

Your obedient servants, 



Wm. C. Bryant. 
Wm. H. Aspinwall. 
Hamilton Fish. 
John W. Hamersley. 
Jonathan Sturgis. 
James W. Beekman. 
J. J. Astor, Jr. 
Smith Clift. 
W. E. Dodge, Jr. 
David Hoadley. 
Frederick De Peyster. 

His Excellency M. Romero, 

Mexican Minister, fyc, Sfc. 



W. Butler Duncan. 
Wm. Curtis Noyes. 
Henry Clews. 
Fred. C. Gebhard. 
Geo. T. Strong. 
Henry Delafield. 
Henry E. Pierrepont. 
George Opdyke. 
David Dudley Field. 
Geo. Bancroft. 
C. A. Bristed. 

&CC, Washington, D. C. 



Alex. Van Rensselaer. 
Geo. rTolsom. 
Washington Hunt. 
Chas. King. 
Willard Parker. 
Adrien Iselin. 
Robert J. Livingston. 
Samuel B. Ruggles. 
James T. Brady. 



For any one who is acquainted with society here, these names will suffice, and it will be 
seen at once that they represent the most distinguished, choice, eminent, and elite people 
of the city of New York, embracing every profession, every employment, and every 
political party in all its shades. In order, however, that foreigners and particularly the 
Spanish-Americans may have some idea of those persons, we will give a brief description 
of their antecedents in the order in which they have signed their names. 

Mr. William Cullen Bryant is a most respectable elderly person, great poet, eminent 
literary man, and one of the first editors of the press of this city. As a poet he has been 
a perfect prodigy of precocity and lengthened genius, to be compared only with Lope 
de Vega and Voltaire. When he was only nine years old he published his first verses, and 
at thirteen a regular poem, in connexion with other beautiful compositions, was issued to 
the eyes of the world. He is now over seventy years of age, and has just given light to a 
new poem that has called forth the eulogy of the press, and in which his robust mental 
faculties have not deteriorated in the slightest degree. By the refined taste displayed in 
his compositions, he is considered as a poet of the most classical taste that this nation has 
hitherto produced. To the golden crown that girdles his venerable head may be added 
the respectability which Mr. Bryant enjoys for his knowledge, his well-tried probity, and 
his constancy in defending the most disinterested political opinions. In regard to these, 
Mr. Bryant belongs to the extreme portion of the republican party, being consequently an 
abolitionist. Septuagenary as he is, he still preserves the moral and physical vigor of 
youth, and is ready to defend any cause that has for a foundation liberty and justice ; he 
has also all the necessary activity to be even now chief editor of the " New Yoik Evening 
Post." 

Mr. William H. Aspinwall is a rich merchant of the highest probity and possessing the 
most active and intelligent spirit of enterprise. The inter-oceanic communication by 
Panama is entirely owing to him. There he has founded the city called in New Granada 
' : Colon," but generally known as " Aspinwall." a name that will hence be imperishable. 
He belongs to the firm of Howlaml, Aspinwall & Co. He is the owner of one of the best 
picture galleries in New York. . 

Mr. Hamilton Fish, a gentleman of the most elevated position in society by the 
antecedents of his family, much respected in this city as well for his personal qualities as 
fur many other reasons. He has been governor of the State of New York, and senator for 
the same in the United States Congress. 

Mr. John W. Hamersley, also of an ancient ami notable family of this city. A man of 
great wealth, highly educated, and distinguished for his varied learning acquired by great 
reading and extensive travelling. By his ex ruisite taste and very fine manners he holds a 
place among the aristocracy which is obtained by those qualities, it being the only one 
that can possibly exist in republics. His independent position has hitherto prevented him 
from being enrolled under any political part; : but bis heart is entirely American, and he 
considers that the absolute independence of this continent from the old is (as he so 
eloquently expresses il) "a principle filtered in the veins of every true sou of Washington 
by the milk that he has drawn from his mother's breast, a pass- word and countersign, and 
a terrible -Monition to Europe." 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 405 

Mr. Jonathan Sturgis, a distinguished and eminent merchant, an enthusiastic philan- 
thropist, who has already dedicated a great part of his wealth for objects of beneficence, 
and for the fine arts, his delicate taste for which entitles him to be an American Mascenas. 
He is president of the " Union League Club," which, as it is well known, represents the 
most select and influential portion of the republican party. 

Mr. James W. Beekman, a descendant from one of the first Dutch families, founders of 
the city of New York. A. man of wealth, highly respected for his honesty and philan- 
thropic sentiments, no less than for the elevated criterion revealed in all his actions. His 
name is always connected in every useful enterprise or in any charitable undertaking 
wherein the moral or physical sufferings of mankind are to be alleviated. He has been 
one of the most eminent senators in the State legislature. 

Mr. John Jacob Astor, jr., is a nephew of the famous philanthropic millionaire, his 
namesake, who lavished enormous sums in objects of public benefit and instruction that 
bear his name, as for instance the Astor library. The town of Astoria, near this city, was 
also called after him. The person of whom we are now speaking, besides his illus- 
trious name, his probity and other personal endowments, is the possessor of a fabulous 
fortune consisting principally of real estate in New York city, and is also a patriot of the 
purest and most enthusiastic kind, as the fact of his having accepted a colonelship in the 
volunteer army of the United States and having suffered all the privations and hazards of 
the campaign clearly indicate. This occasioned a malady from which he has not entirely 
i'ecovered yet. 

Mr. Smith Clift, a lawyer of celebrity and high reputation for his honesty and undeniable 
talents, is a distinguished member of the republican party. 

Mr. William E. Dodge, jr., is one of the heirs to the great fortune and virtues of his father. 
He is a prominent merchant in this city. The Dodge family have distinguished themselves 
by their unstained morality and religious piety. He has spent considerable sums in 
philanthropic and Christian establishments, having subscribed on one occasion more than 
$25,000 for the founding of a college in Palestine. Mr. Dodge, partner of the house of 
Phelps, Dodge & Co., is a banker of high standing and great prospects. 

Mr. David Hoadley is also a person of the highest respectability in this city, accredited 
honesty and good judgment. He is the president of the Panama Railroad Company, and 
has contributed largely in raising it to the height it now occupies, and is considered as 
one of the most lucrative and best managed enterprises in this country. 

Mr. Frederick De Peyster is a much distinguished and respected literary man, as must 
be seen at once when he is known to be the president of the Historical Society of New York. 
He descends from one of the oldest and most honorable Dutch families of this city, and is 
held as a prominent member of the democratic party. 

Mr. William Cutler Duncan, a well-known and rich banker of the house of Duncan, 
Sherman & Co. He is a member of the extreme portion of the democratic party. 

Mr. William Curtis Noyes, a prominent lawyer of high reputation, is considered one of 
the luminaries of the New York bar, well known as a man of probity and judgment, and 
is one of the principal members of the republican party. 

Mr. Henry Clews is a noted merchant of the firm of Livermore, Clews & Co , United States 
bankers for the sale of some of its bonds. 

Mr. Frederick C. Gebhard, banker of high reputation, and of an ancient and prominent 
family. He is a partner of the house of Schusherd, Gebhard & Co. 

Mr. George T. Strong, lawyer, and treasurer of the United States Sanitary Commission, 
a post of great trust. He is a learned Greek scholar, of fine taste and exquisite manners. 

Mr. Henry Delafield is a rich merchant, retired from business, and brother of the dis- 
tinguished colonel of engineers of the same name, and of a celebrated physician of this 
city. 

Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont is a wealthy gentleman and eminent lawyer of Brooklyn, a 
philanthropist, and protector of the fine arts, and belongs to one of the oldest and most 
respectable Huguenot families. 

Mr. George Opdyke is a merchant well known and respected, having been the last mayor 
of the city of New York. 

Mr. David Dudley Field, eminent lawyer, and one of the authors of the present civil 
code of New York ; is a prominent member of the republican party. 

Mr. George Bancroft, ex-minister from this country to England, is an eminent historian, 
and is now publishing a large history of the United States. He enjoys a well-deserved 
reputation as a literary man, and was Secretary of the Navy in a former administration. 

Mr. Charles Astor Bristed, a near relation of John Jacob Astor, of whom we have already 
spoken, is a man well versed in sciences and letters, and has written several works of great 
merit upon political matters. 

Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, son of the founder of Albany, wealthy ' ' rentier. " He is a 
man of much culture, and of an old Dutch family. 



406 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. George Folsom, ex-minister from the United States to Holland ; native of the State 
of Maine ; connected by marriage to one of the principal families of this city. He is a 
person of wealth, great learning, and a distinguished member of the Ethnological Society 
of New York, and consequently a noted philologist. He has made a magnificent transla- 
tion of the letters addressed by Hernan Cortes to Charles V upon the conquest of Mexico. 

Mr. Washington Hunt, ex-governor of the State of New York, and a prominent member 
of the democratic party. He represents the interests of the eastern portion of the same 
State, of which he is a native. 

Mr. Charles King is a venerable, elderly gentleman, the Nestor of that select meeting, 
for he is five years older than Mr. Bryant, and consequently seventy-five years of age. 
Notwithstanding, his features, his deportment, his voice, and, above all, his intelligent 
and fiery gaze, reveal an extraordinary vigor. Educated in Paris and London, where, in 
the beginning of the present century, his father resided as minister from the United States, 
he returned to his country, married into a distinguished and rich family, and was for some 
time engaged in a large speculating business. He excelled afterwards as a journalist, and 
having been appointed many years ago president of Columbia College, the most ancient 
and renowned institution for scientific instruction in the United States, has made great 
improvements there, and contributed effectively to establish its present celebrity. His good 
humor, that does not detract from his venerable aspect, gives him a particular attraction, 
and on approaching him one does not know which is the most predominent feeling of the 
heart, whether it be the affection inspired by his amiability, or the veneration with which 
his eminent intelligent qualities, his knowledge, and his purified morality subdue you. 

Mr. Willard Parker is an eminent physician of New York — perhaps the most eminent in 
the United States, after the octogenarian Mott. To a consummate scientific knowledge that 
he possesses may be added the most noble character and the best qualities. 

Mr. Adrien Iselin is a merchant of high standing, and whose name is advantageously 
known in the New York market. 

Mr. Robert J. Livingston is a very wealthy man, and a descendant of an illustrious 
family of this country, as one of his ancestors was companion to Washington in the revo- 
lutionary war, and another one w r as Secretary of State and an American diplomat in 
Europe. 

Mr. Samuel B. Ruggles, who possessed formerly a large fortune, is a very intelligent and 
educated person ; he has been a delegate from the United States to the international 
statistic congress, assembled at Berlin. 

Mr. James T. Brady is one of the most prominent lawyers of the New York bar, an orator 
of great reputation, and eminent among the democratic party. He was a candidate of the 
same State for governor in the election before last. 

To the foregoing invitation Mr. Romero answered as follows : 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, March 20, 1864. 

Gentlemen: I have just had the honor to receive your kind letter of the 18th ultimo, 
informing me that you, in common with many loyal citizens, feel much interest in the 
present condition of Mexico, cordially sympathize with the people of that republic in their 
unequal struggle, and appreciating their bravery and sacrifices, as well as my services (you 
kindly add) in maintaining the integrity of my country. You are good euough to tender 
to me, as the representative of Mexico, a dinner in your city on the 29th instant. 

Nothing could be more gratifying to myself and to my countrymen than seeing that we 
have with us the enlightened and uninterested sympathy of so many of the most distin- 
guished and eminent citizens, whose virtues, learning, and persevering enterprise have 
made of the city of New York the great metropolis of the New World. 

The demonstration with which you intend to honor the noble cause for which my country 
is fighting against one of the strongest and b.>st organized military powers on earth, while 
it shows your high opinion of the question, and your great sense of justice, will be duly 
appreciated and thanked for by my government and countrymen, as well as by all unbiased 
and disinterested people throughout the world, who have some regard for justice, aud ean- 
not help noticing it entirely trampled down by the Emperor of the French in the policy 
he is pursuing towards Mexico. 

I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

M. ROMERO. 

Messrs. William Cillen Bryant, &c, &c, and all the other gentlemen who signed this 
invitation. 

Besides the above-copied invitation, Mr. Romero received the following cue : 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 407 



New York, March 18, 1864. 
Dear Sir : la behalf of the undersigned, who, in common with our countrymen, cor- 
dially sympathize with the people of Mexico in their unequal struggle, and with you as 
their faithful representative, we beg your acceptance of a dinner in this city on Tuesday, 
March 29, at 7 o'clock. 

WILLIAM H. ASPINWALL, 

Chairman Invitation Committee. 
Senor Romero, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Mexico. 

Mr. Romero's answer was this : 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, March 25, 1864. 

Dear Sir: I have to-day had the honor of receiving the polite note you had the kindness 
to address to me under date of the 18th instant, proposing to me in your behalf, and in 
common with many of your countrymen cordially sympathizing with the people of Mexico 
in their unequal struggle, and with me as their representative, that I should accept a din- 
ner in your city on Tuesday, 29th instant, at 7 o'clock p. m. 

Thanking you very sincerely for the kindness of yourself and your distinguished friends 
in tendering me such demonstration, which, on account of the very high social standing 
and eminent qualities of the gentlemen from whom it originates, carries with it a great 
significance, I have the honor to state to you that I have already accepted said dinner in a 
letter dated the 20th instant, which I had the pleasure to address to the gentlemen who 
have honored me by their kindness in offering it to me, and that I will soon leave for your 
city with a view to be there on the day appointed. 

I am, very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 

M. ROMERO. 

William H. Aspinwall, Esq. , 

Chairman Invitation Committee, New York city. 

The feast was held in the best saloons of Delmonico's hotel, occupying four of the largest. 
Two were set apart for the reception and convenience of the guests, one for the banquet 
itself, and the fourth for the orchestra and other matters indispensable to the occasion. 
The great dining saloon, of five hundred covers, was illuminated for the purpose of receiving 
a number of ladies and gentlemen belonging to the families of the guests, who assembled 
to see the table and its ornaments prior to the beginning of the banquet. Important addi- 
tions had been made to the usual furniture and decorations of those splendid rooms ; and 
among other things that delighted the sight there was a profusion of exquisite flowers, arranged 
in garlands, branches, twigs, baskets, flowerpots, &c. , distributed over the doors, tables, 
fireplaces, at the sides of the mirrors, and wherever they could serve as graceful ornaments. 
The hall in which the banquet was set out displayed a most magnificent spectacle. At the 
head the national flags of the United States and of the republic of Mexico were placed 
together. On the table itself there were, besides five pyramids formed of slender branches 
of flowers, a splendid sugar piece, four feet high, placed in the centre, representing the 
arms of the Mexican republic — that is, the eagle standing in the cactus, the whole sup- 
ported by a rock, which seemed to lise up in the midst of waters. The elegant table was 
also decorated with a palm and various kinds of cactus, as a memorial of the tropical clime 
and productions of Mexico. There was also a piece of pastry work in the form of a small 
temple, on which were distinctly written these two names : " Juarez," " Uraga," the heroic 
President and gallant general-in-chief who are now at the head of the Mexican patriots. 

A touching and moving picture was presented by those illustrious citizens of the Ameri- 
can Union vying with each other in entertaining and welcoming the representative of 
Mexico, the neighboring republic, in an hour the most difficult and critical that has ever 
dawned upon her. The generosity of the sentiment which inspires certain men with the 
desire of honoring and sustaining with demonstrations of affection those who are struggling 
with misfortune is something that is only within the reach of noble minds, of intelligent 
and well- organized hearts. 

But we must come back to the prosaic but substantial and important question of the 
dinner itself, without going into particulars, and reserving what is technically termed the 
"menu" to be inserted afterwards. This we will take from the elegant bills of fare, printed 
on blue satin with golden letters, which were distributed to the guests. It is enough to 
say that the eatables were of the most exquisite and delicate kind, only adding that there 
was an abundance of excellent wines, and we will have said all that is necessary on this 
part of this subject. 

The orchestra, which was magnificent, played a number of operatic selections, intermin- 



403 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



-gled with Mexican airs, alternating with "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia.'' The 
sweet accents of the music, reverberating from the other hall without any noise or disturb- 
ance, did not prevent conversation, which flowed on in a constant and animated strain, full 
of friendship and cordiality. 

Some of those who subscribed their names to the invitation were not able to attend the 
dinner in consequence of family and other matters. Mr. AspinwalJ, for instance, lost his 
mother-in-law a day before the banquet ; Mr. Fish, scarcely a week before, had received 
information of the death of a daughter, resident in France, and Mr. Noyes, only four days 
previously, lost his old and venerable mother. Other persons had unavoidable business to 
call them away, as in the case pf Mr. Brady and Mr. Euggles. Some of them expressed to 
the stewards their regrets at not being able to attend the dinner, as Mr. Brady did in 
the following letter : 

Willards' Hotel, 
Washington, D. C, March 25, 1864. 
My Dear Sib : I am detained here by professional business, and fear that I will not be 
able to reach New York in time for the dinner to Seiior Romero on 29th, which I would 
be so happy to attend, and in which I am willing in every way to participate. If I be 
kept away, please give my best respects to the seiior, and let me wish you all the pleasure 
you expect from the festivity. 
Yours, truly, 

JAS. T. BRADY. 
J. W. Hamerslky, Esq. 



Besides Mr. Romero, Sefior Don Juan N. Navarro, consul-general of the Mexican repub- 
lic, residing in New York, Sefior Don Ignacio Mariscal, a lawyer, highly esteemed and 
considered in the city of Mexico, who is now secretary of the Mexican legation in the 
United States, and Don Fernando de la Cuesta, second secretary of the same legation, were 
also invited to the banquet. 

The party were seated at table in the following order : 

Mr. Beekman. 

Sefior Romero. 

Mr. Bryant. 

Mr. Delafield. 

Mr. Duncan. 

Mr. Astor. 

Sefior Cuesta. 

Mr. De Peyster. 

Mr. Pierrepont. 

Mr. Clift. 

Dr. Navarro. 

Dr. Parker. 

Mr. Opdyke. 

Mr. Kins;. 



Mr. Iselin. 
Mr. Gebhard. 
Mr. Hamersley. 

Clews. 

Hunt. 

Bancroft. 
Mr. Sturges. 
Mr. Folsom. 
Mr. Bristed. 
Mr. Dodge. 
Mr. Field 
Sefior Mariscal. 



Mr. 
Mr. 

Mr. 



Shortly before the dessert, Mr. Beekman, the president, arose and said : 

" Gentlemen : I am going to propose to you, by previous arrangement with some of you, 
what is, I know it, a complete departure from what has hitherto been customary in dinners 
of this kind, and which, I believe, will create quite a complete revolution in those which 
maybe given hereafter, and that is, that before we proceed any further the first and regular 
toast should be made. I propose, then, gentlemen, the health of 'The President of the 
United States,' and I beg our distinguished friend, Mr. Field, to respond." 

This toast was received with general enthusiasm, the whole assemblage rising. 

Mr. David Dudley Field then spoke as follows : 

" Mr. Chairman : Why I should be called upon to answer this toast I do not precisely 
know. I hold, as you know, sir, no official position, and am in no manner entitled to 
speak, except as any citizen may, for the President or any member of his cabinet So far 
as it is a compliment or salutation for the country of which he is the first magistrate, we 
who arc Americans all share, both in the giving and the receiving it So far as it calls for 
the expression of any opinion or intention on the part of the Executive, I, of course, can 
say nothing. There is one respect, however, in which all of us, private citizens, may ven- 
ture to speak for the Chief Magistrate, and that is when we interpret or express the judg- 
ment of the American people — here, more than anywhere else, the executive department 
of the popular Mill. 

"When, therefore, we utter the opinion of the American people, we answer, in a grea 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 409 

measure, for the President ; and in this manner any private citizen, like myself, may ven- 
ture to speak. So doing, I assert, without hesitation, that, with unexampled unanimity, 
Americans feel a profound sympathy for the Mexican people in this day of their trial. The 
sentiment of the country is all but one on this subject We do not stop to inquire whether 
the Mexicans have not made mistakes in the management of their affairs. That is possible ; 
all nations have done as much. We have done so in the management of our own affairs, 
of which we are now reaping the bitter fruits. But, whatever may have been the mistakes 
of the Mexicans, they give no sort of excuse to the invasion of the French, or the attempt 
of foreigners to impose a yoke upon their country. 

"Though the minds and hearts of the American people are chiefly occupied with their own 
long and bloody struggle against an unnatural rebellion, they nevertheless feel deeply the 
wrongs of Mexico, and they will express this feeling on every proper occasion. We express 
it here at this festive gathering ; they will express it at public meetings, in State legisla- 
tures, and in Congress ; and they expect the Executive, the organ of the nation, in its in- 
tercourse with other nations, to express it also to the fullest extent, within the limits of 
international obligations. 

" Not only do we give the Mexican people our sincerest sympathy, but we offer them all 
the encouragement which a neutral nation can offer. We bid them to be of good cheer ; 
to hold fast by their integrity; to stand firm through all vicissitudes, believing in the 
strength of nationality, in the vitality of freedom, and in that overruling and all-wise 
Providei.ce which, sooner or later, chastises wrong and casts down the oppressor. 

"This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of the motives which prompted this 
French invasion, nor to trace the history of the parties which have divided Mexico, and 
been made the pretext for the intrusion of foreigners into its domestic affairs. Thus much, 
however, may be said, that whatever may be the incidental questions that have arisen, 
there is one great and controlling feature in the controversy, and that is the claim, on the 
one hand, of the church to interfere in the affairs cf the state, and the claim of the state, 
on the other hand, to be freed from the interference of the church. We hear constantly of 
the church party in Mexico. Why should there be a church party ? "What can it have 
legitimately to do with secular affairs ? With us, it ha?, been a fundamental maxim from 
the formation of our government, imbedded in the organic law, that there must be forever 
a total separation of church and state. The Mexican people — that is to say, the true and 
loyal portion of them — are struggling for the Fame end, and in this we Americans, of all 
creeds and all parties, bid them God speed. Yes, all of us, excepting only the rebel, who 
raises his arms against his country, and the deceitful renegade, who, not daring to raise an 
arm against it, &eeks yet to betray it — all of us, I say, with these exceptions, pray for and 
believe in the deliverance of Mexico. It may be sooner or later ; it may come through 
greater misfortunes than any which she has yet suffered, but come it will. The spirit of 
freedom is stronger than the lances of France. 

" Maximilian may come with the Austrian eagle and the French tricolor ; he may come 
with a hundred ships; he may march on the high road from Vera Cruz to the capital, under 
the escort of French squadrons ; he may be proclaimed by French trumpets in all the squares 
of the chief cities ; but he will return, at some earlier or later day, a fugitive from the New 
World back to the Old, from which he came ; his followers will be scattered and chased 
from the land ; the titles and dignities which he is about to lavish on followers and apos- 
tates will be marks of derision ; the flag of the republic will wave from all the peaks of the 
Cordilleras, and be answered from every mountain top, east and west, to either ocean ; 
and the renewed country, purified by blood and fire, will resume its institutions, and be 
free. 

" Such, Mr. Chairman, are, I am sure, the wishes and the expectations of the American 
people ; and thus, I am bound to presume, would be the answer, if he were free to speak, 
of the President of the United States." 

After this interesting speech, which was received with long and general applause, the 
dinner continued, in the manner which will appear in the bill of fare. When the dessert 
was served, Mr. Beekman arose and said : 

"Gentlemen: The turn of the second regular toast has come. It is 'To Don Benito 
Juarez, constitutional president of the Mexican republic' This illustrious personage is, 
gentlemen, as you are aware, of pure indigenous race. Of humble birth, his eminent 
virtues and exalted qualities elevated him by the votes of his fellow-citizens to the first 
magistracy of his country, and he has discharged his duties under the most adverse cir- 
cumstances that have ever fallen to the lot of any statesman. It can be said of him, as 
of Biyard, that he is — 

" ' Without fear and without reproach.' 

"I beg the illustrious president of Columbia college to respond to this toast, after which 
I trust we will have the pleasure of hearing our distinguished guest." 



410 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

This toast was drunk with the greatest demonstrations of enthusiasm and most loudly 
applauded, and, at the request of one of the gentlemen, three cheers were given for the 
President of Mexico, after which Mr. Kino spoke in the following manner : 

" Gentlemen : The toast you have just drunk to the President of the Mexican republic 
is worthy of our cheers, for he is the chosen representative of the Mexican people, from 
whom he himself sprang, and our distinguished guest to day is accredited to our govern- 
ment as the representative of the government of which President Juarez is the head In 
honoring the name of President Juarez, we are, then, acting in harmony with the views 
and policy of our own government as much as in consonance with our own feelings and 
convictions. 

" For certainly to us, as Americans, there is much in the character and antecedents of 
Juarez to commend him to our regard. He is, what was the boast of the Athenians of 
old, (that noblest race of men that ever made a small state great,) born of the soil, and of 
the people, where he lives — one of those autochthones who, having no progenitors to look 
back to but mother earth, have all the more inducement to look forward to ennobling, as 
far as they may, and dignifying, that mother earth. 

"Thoroughly trained and educated in all good knowledge, Juarez labors to see his 
country great, prosperous, and, above a'l, free — free individually and socially — free politi- 
cally, aud, above all, spiritually free It is there that lies the danger and the difficulty 
of Mexico. It is spiritual bondage even more than partisan and factious quarrels that has 
damaged that fine country. It is the influence of a class of religionists as a power in the 
state that has been most injurious there, as it must be everywhere ; and I say this in the 
most general terms, and not as applicable to any one form of belief. 

"Juarez is the avowed and bold opponent of the politico-ieligious hierarchy which has 
so largely controlled the affairs of Mexico, while monopolizing a most undue share of its 
wealth. 

"He is proscribed by the priesthood, bec.iuse he stands, as iu New England our fore- 
fathers did, for liberty of conscience, for the right of every man to decide for himself in 
matters of faith. For the same reason he is proscribed by the imperial pro-consul of 
France ; for it suits the present interest of the unfathomable mystery that sits upon the 
throne of France to cultivate the Roman Catholic hierarchy — which is a united body all 
over the world — wielding a sword, and that not the sword of the spirit, of which ' the hilt 
is at Rome, and the point everywhere.' 

" We, who have tried aud known how much safer and wiser it is to separate the church 
from the state — and where public opinion, and sometimes positive law, forbids the mingling 
of priests in politics — we can well sympathize with President Juarez in his brave struggle 
in Mexico against a domineering clergy and against the foreign allies whom they have intro- 
duced into the country, to ruin where they could no longer rule. 

'• In the midst of the agony of our own civil war we cannot be insensible nor indifferent 
to the cause of Mexico, our neighbor, our friend, our natural ally io every difficulty that 
shall involve the point of American nationality and American interests, as opposed to 
European nationality and European interests Mexico never can, with the assent of the 
people of the United States, become the appendage of a European nation, or furnish a 
peaceful throne to any scion of a Europeau imperial house. The opportunity, so auspiciously 
presented hy the visit of our distinguished guest, is eagerly embraced by us — private indi- 
viduals, indeed, yet not unfair representatives of the popular sentiments of our fellow- 
citizens of all classes— to give emphatic expression to the declaration that. ' biding our 
time,' we will, at all hazards, when that time comes, assert and uphold the doctrine that 
on this continent we will not permit the interference by arms of any European nation to 
overthrow republican institutions and to establish monarchy Especially as respects Mexico, 
(conterminous with us for so many degrees of longitude, washed on its Atlantic and Pacific 
shores hy the same bays and seas, and anxious to model its institutions after those which 
have raised these United States to such power and prosperity.) with lespect to Mexico, I 
repeat, we cannot, and we will not, consent that any archduke of Austria, be he puppet or 
be he principal, nor any other monarchical pretender, shall bo imposed upon the Mexican 
people by foreign bayonets 

"True it is, alas! that, through the gieat crimes of slavery, we aie at this moment 
unable to give to our firm purposes in this regard fitting outward manifestation ; but, as in 
the inevitable course of justice, which is God, our civil war must ere long close by the 
extirpation of its accursed cause, and in the restoration of our national unity and terri- 
torial integiity, we shall then have disposable such a force on sea and on land as will impart 
unlimited power of persuasion to the diplomatic declaration we shall then make that Mexico 
must and shall he Mexican, that Mexico must and shall be American, and not European." 

This speech was much applauded and interrupted by demonstrations of approval. Then 
Mr. r.eekman, the chairman, announced that Mr. Komero was about to speak, alluding to 
him in the most honorable maimer as the representative of Mexico, to whom that banquet 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 411 

was dedicated. Mr. Eomeko, being saluted by enthusiastic applause and three cheers, amid 
profound silence, spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chaikman — Gentlemen : I feel entirely unable to express to you in a sufficient 
manner my sincere thanks for the great honor you have bestowed upon me and my coun- 
try in this refined and splendid demonstration of your sympathy for struggling Mexico. 
It is, indeed, particularly gratifying to me that this significant demonstration is made by 
so many of the most distinguished and most eminent citizens, who are an ornament to this 
great metropolis, and whose virtues, learning, and enterprise have contributed so much 
to make your city in so brief a period the first, not only of the broad United States, but of 
the whole American continent, as well as to make your country one of the most powerful, 
wealthy, and civilized on the globe. 

- It is, indeed, another motive which greatly adds to my gratification, and for which, in the 
name of my country, I beg to express to you my gratitude for the kind words with which 
our distinguished friend has proposed the health of Benito Juarez, the constitutional presi- 
dent of the republic of Mexico, and for the prompt heartiness and cordiality with which 
that toast has been received. I perceive, with joy and gratitude, gentlemen, that you 
appreciate the high qualities of that statesman and patriot, and hold a strong and pure 
sympathy for the noble cause of which he is the leader. 

I am rejoiced that I have the opportunity to see with my own eyes the proof that the 
eminent French statesman, M. Thiers, was somewhat mistaken when, in a speech he 
recently delivered before the Corps Legislatif, of Paris, against the policy pursued by 
Emperor Napoleon in Mexican affairs, he stated that the United States would not, under 
present circumstances, object in any way to that policy ; and that, should the Archduke 
Maximilian come to this city en route to Mexico, he would meet with a cordial reception at 
your hands. It could scarcely be possible to have a more distinguished, complete, and 
genuine representation of the patriotism, intelligence, and wealth of the great city of New 
York — the leading city of the Union — than that I see assembled here this evening ; yet, if 
I can trust my senses, gentlemen, I venture to assert that the sympathies of your great city 
run in a direction very different from that imagined by M. Thiers. 

I am very happy to say that the kind feeling you express for Mexico is fully recipro- 
cated. In Mexico there are now but the sentiments of regard and admiration for the 
United States, and the desire to pursue such a course as will draw more closely all those 
powerful ties by which both nations should be united. 

It has sometimes appeared to me that the gentlemen who controlled the government 
of the United States for thirty-five years previous to 1861 cared for nothing so much as for 
the acquisition of territory. Those gentlemen thus caused their country to appear in the 
character of a very covetous man, who, without knowing the boundaries of his own estate 
or endeavoring to improve it, constantly exerts himself to enlarge his limits, without being 
very scrupulous as to the means of its accomplishment. 

Just before the war with Mexico commenced, the United States had a boundaiy ques- 
tion with England, which threatened a rupture between the two countries, and I have been 
informed that the same documents which were prepared as a declaration of war against 
Great Britain were used when war was finally declared against Mexico. Thus, while the 
idea of acquiring domain from Gieat Britain by a dubious title, to say the least, was relin- 
quished, the same scheme was carried out against Mexico, not only without any plausible 
reason, but, I must say, in violation of all principles of justice. 

I beg of you, gentlemen, to excuse me if I have referred to an unpleasant point in the 
history of late events. But I wish to forcibly present to your minds the idea that the unfair 
policy I have alluded to led, in a great measure, to the troubles and complications in which 
you are now involved, and one of the consequences of which is French intervention in 
Mexico, as that intervention would never have been but for the civil war in the United 
States. 

Those who have pursued this policy appear to have been, in the main, under the influ- 
ence of the slave power, and to have had in view their own political influence and personal 
aggrandizement, rather than the great interests of their country. They very properly 
thought that, by extending the area of slavery, they would extend in proportion their 
influence and strength. For that reason they did not insist on increasing the territory of 
the United States in the far northwest, where their peculiar institution could not be acclimated, 
but rather set their eyes towards the sunny regions of Mexico. By that means the institu- 
tion of human slavery had so large an increase, that a short time afterwards it was strong 
enough to commence a gigantic war against the government of the United States. In my 
opinion, the leaders of the slavery party always had in view the separation of their own 
States from the free States of the north, and to make up for the loss they aspired to acquire 
territory southward. 

I will not conceal from; you, gentlemen, the fact that we have looked with deep appre- 
hension upon such an aggressive policy, which threatened to deprive us of our independ- 



412 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

ence and nationality — the highest and most precious rights that man can enjoy on earth. 
We were, of course, fully determined not to give up this precious inheritance, and we had 
resolved to fight to the last. In our present war with France we are giving a proof of 
our determination. It may appear foolish and unavailing for Mexico, that has been so 
often exhausted in her struggles to obtain true liberty during the last forty years, to accept 
war with the greatest military power in Europe ; but there are circumstances in the life of 
nations which cause them to overlook all secondary considerations, and determine to exert 
themselves to overcome all difficulties. Besides, our situation is not so bad as many think. 

Fortunately, the change of policy towards Mexico operated in the Unite I States brought 
up a consequent change in the feelings of my country in regard to yours. We do not wish 
now to have any interest antagonistical to yours, because we mean to keep peace with you, 
and that object could scarcely be accomplished if our respective interests were in opposi- 
tion. For that reason, among other very material ones that we had, we established a 
republican form of government and democratic institutions, modelled on the same basis as 
yours 

Ihe Emperor of the French pretends that the object of his interference in Mexican 
affairs is to prevent the annexation of Mexico to the United States ; and yet that very 
result would, most likely, be ultimately accomplished if a monarchy were established in 
Mexico. Fortunately for us, that scheme is by no means a feasible one. 

Mexico is most bountifully blessed by nature. She can produce of the best quality and 
in large quantities all of the principal agricultural staples of the world — cotton, coffee, 
sugar, tobacco, vanilla, wheat, and corn. Her mines have yielded the largest portion of 
all the silver which now circulates throughout the world, and there still remain to her 
mountains of that precious metal, as well as of gold, which only require labor, skill, and 
capital to make them available and valuable. The wealth of California is nothing when 
compared with what still remains in Mexico. 

My country, therefore, opens a most desirable field for the enterprise of a commercial 
nation. Farsighted England discovered this many years ago, and by establishing a line of 
mail steamers from Southampton to Vera Cruz and Tampico, and negotiating advantageous 
treaties of commerce, has, beyond all other nations, enjoyed the best of the Mexican trade. 
France, seeing this, and wishing to vie with England, has undertaken an enterprise which, 
besides being ruinous to her, will not produce the desired end, as the means adopted must 
surely cause the opposite result. The United States are the best situated to avail of the 
immense wealth of Mexico. Being a neighbor nation, they have more advantages than 
any other for the frontier and coasting trade, and, furthermore, being a nation second to 
none in wealth, activity, skill, and enterprise, they are called by nature to speculate and 
enjoy the resources of Mexico. 

We are willing to grant to the United States every commercial facility that will not be 
derogatory of our independence and sovereignty. This will give to the United States all 
possible advantages that could be derived from annexation without any of its inconve- 
niences. That once done, our common interests, political as well as commercial, will give 
us a common whole American continental policy which no European nation would dare 
disregard. 

The bright future which I plainly see for both nations had made me forget for a moment 
the present troubles in which they are now involved. I consider these troubles of so transi- 
tory a nature as not to interfere materially with the common destiny I have foreshadowed : 
but, as they have the interest of actuality, I beg to be allowed to make a few remarks in 
regard to them. 

Every careful observer of events could not help noticing, when the expedition against 
Mexico was organized in Europe, that it would, sooner or later, draw the United States into 
the most serious complications, and involve them in the difficulty. The object of that 
expedition being no less than a direct and armed interference in the political affairs of an 
American nation, with a view to overthrow its republican institutions and establish on their 
ruins a monarchy, with a European prince on the throne, the only question to be deter- 
mined by the United States and the other nations concerned was as to the time when they 
would be willing or ready to meet the issue thus boldly and openly held out by the antag- 
onistic nations of Europe. 

The United States could not be indifferent in this question : just as a man who sees his 
neighbor's house set on tire by an incendiary could not remain an unconcerned spectator, 
while his own house contains his family and all his fortune, and combustible matter lies 
in the basement. The only alternative left to him should be whether it would be more 
convenient to his interests to help his neighbor in putting out the lire from the beginning, 
and with the same earnestness as if his own house were already caught by that destructive 
rlcmeut, or to wait inactive until the incendiary has succeeded in making a perfect blaze 
of his neighbor's property, by which all will inevitably be involved in one common ruin. 

This, in my opinion, is the situation in which the United States are placed with regard 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 413 

to Mexico. Taking into consideration the well-known sagacity of American statesmen, the 
often-proved devotion of the American people to republican institutions, and the patriotism 
and zeal of the administration that presides over the destinies of the country, I cannot en- 
tertain the slightest doubt that the United States will act in this emergency as will conduce 
to the best interests they and mankind at large have at stake in the Mexican question. 

In the mean time, however, I consider it of the highest importance that the delusion 
prevailing throughout Europe that the United States do not oppose, and rather favor, the 
establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, by French bayonets, should be dispelled. The 
French government has been working steadily in causing that delusion to prevail on the 
other side cf the water, and, so far, has succeeded more than could be expected considering 
the absurdity of such an idea. The war against Mexico would be ten times more unpopular 
in France than it is now — in fact, it could not be maintained any longer, if the French people 
were made to understand that the people of the United States will never tolerate, much 
less favor or encourage, the establishment, by force of arms, of a European monarchy upon 
the ruins of a sister neighboring republic. The French people are friendly to the United 
States ; old traditions, the common love of liberty, and the absence of opposing interests, 
make them friendly. They would, therefore, be wholly opposed to anything that, 
without bringing them any real benefit, might, sooner or later, lead to a war with this coun- 
try. They very well know that such a war could not but be disastrous to France, since 
France would have everything to lose and nothing to gain by such a war, whatever may 
be her influence and power in the European continental politics. 

The United States may find that they are brought squarely to the issue on the Mexican 
question sooner than they expected, should the report, lately reached here, of any under- 
standing between Maximilian, as so-called Emperor of Mexico, and the insurgents in this 
country, prove correct. The archduke, it is stated, will inaugurate his administration by 
acknowledging the independence of the south, and perhaps he will go further ; and this, 
of course, by the advice, consent, and support of the French government, whose satellite, 
and nothing else, will the archduke be in Mexico. 

The French official and sen i- official papers assure us that Maximilian will soon depart 
for Mexico. All present appearances indicate that he is willing to change his high position 
in Europe for a hazardous one in Mexico. He cannot stay there unless supported by a 
French army, and he will not, therefore, be anything more than the shadow of the French 
Emperor. Should he ever have a different view or desire from the French government, or 
even the French general-in chief, he will be obliged to submit to the humiliating condition 
of forbearing to do that which he thinks best in a country where he will call himself Em- 
peror. As far as the personality of the Austrian duke is concerned he is nothing. If he 
goes to Mexico to meddle in our affairs we shall consider him as our enemy, and deal with 
him accordingly. We hold that in the political question which is being agitated in Mexico 
the person of the Austrian duke is not of much account ; and whether he does or does not 
go there, that question can ultimately have only one possible solution — namely, the tri- 
umph and maintenance of republican institutions. 

As far as I am concerned, I prefer that Maximilian should go to Mexico, so as to give the 
European dreamers on monarchies a fair chance to realize their dreams of America. As for 
Mexico, I can say that nothing that has transpired in my country should surprise any one 
who is familiar with our affairs. It is true that we have been unfortunate during the past 
year ; we have lost nearly all the battles we have fought with the French ; they have occu- 
pied some of our principal cities ; they have blockaded our ports ; but all these gains on 
the part of the French are nothing when compared with the elements of opposition and 
endurance which remain with the national government of Mexico, ruling a people number- 
ing eight millions, determinedly opposed to intervention, ready to fight, and fighting already, 
for their independence ; a country that will require half a million of soldiers to subdue and 
possess ; naturally strong in defences, possessing inaccessible mountains, impracticable roads, 
where the patriots will be able to make a perpetual warfare upon the invader, until he is 
persuaded of the impossibility of accomplishing the conquest or be compelled to leave for 
other causes. Such is the prospect before us, and that in case we could do nothing more 
than make a passive resistance. But we can do better than this. 

Among the many events calculated to terminate immediately French intervention in 
Mexico, the European complications which threaten to cause a general war on that conti- 
nent should be particularly mentioned. It is certainly wonderful that whilst Europe is in 
so insecure and agitated a condition, menaced by revolutions everywhere, and wrestling to 
recover its own existence and independence, the French Emperor should be thinking about 
arranging other people's affairs, as if his own did not require his immediate and most par- 
ticular attention. 

The only serious support the French intervention had among the Mexicans was that 
afforded by the church party, which was, in fact, the promoter and supporter of the inter- 
vention. The generals of the church party have, with the aid of the French army, been 



414 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

conscripting Mexican citizens to make them fight with the foreign invader against their 
brothers and the independence of their country. The church party expected, of course, as 
a small compensation for the services rendered to the intervention, that as soon as the 
French should take the city of Mexico they would restore the church property confiscated 
by the national government, and the fueros of the clergy, of which they had been deprived. 
But the French have thus far failed to do this. They discovered that the church party was 
the weakest, and that with that party they had no chance of subduing the country. The 
French now wish to conciliate the liberal party by sustaining and enforcing all the impor- 
tant measures and laws decreed by the national government. But the liberals of Mexico 
are true patriots before partisans, and will not be conciliated so long as the foot of the in- 
vader is on Mexican soil. The policy of the French so incensed the church party that they 
broke altogether with the French. The archbishop of Mexico, who was a member of the 
so called regency, withdrew at once, and was afterwards dismissed by General Bazaine. The 
so-called supreme tribunal protested against those measures, and shared the fate of the 
archbishop. All the archbishops and bishops in the republic then joined in signing a pro- 
test, in which they declared the condition of the church to be far worse than it ever was 
under the rule of the liberal government ; that now they are not allowed even to issue their 
pastorals, a right never denied to them while the liberals were in power in the city of Mex- 
ico. The protest concluded by excommunicating the French government, the French army 
in Mexico, all Mexicans who take tides with the French, and everybody who supports the 
French cause in any way. These proceedings have left the French without the support of 
the only part of the native population they ever had in their favor, and has combined 
against them all the elements of the country. 

I fear that I have already imposed too much upon your kindness, and, in concluding my 
remarks, I beg to express my earnest and sincere desire that this demonstration may be 
the beginning of a new era of perpetual peace and cordiality in the relations between the 
United States and Mexico. [Cheers.] 

Mr. Romero's speech being concluded, which was also often interrupted by prolonged 
and enthusiastic applause, Mr. Beekman proposed the third regular toast as follows : 

"Gentlemen : There have not been wanting people who think there are no statesmen in 
Mexico. Such a thing can only happen to those who are unacquainted with the history of 
that country. Both during her conquest, as during her independence, and more recently 
during her regeneration, Mexico has had distinguished heroes as well as good statesmen : 
Guatimotzin, Hidalgo, and Morelos, Ocampo, Lerdo, and Dogollado, are names venerated 
in that country. I propose, then, gentlemen, that we drink to the statesmen of the United 
States and Mexico, and I beg our distinguished friend, the illustrious historian of our coun- 
try, that he do us the favor of responding to the toast." 

We have been unable to procure any authentic memorandum of the speech of Mr. Ban- 
croft, as we have done with the three preceding ones, and although we will inevitably be 
obliged to make some alterations in his words, we are sure that we are faithful in giving his 
ideas. Mr. Bancroft expressed himself substantially thus : 

" Gentlemen : Although I am not prepared to deliver an address worthy of this auditory. 
I cannot refrain from replying and expressing my sentiments, as I have been called to 
reply to the toast which our president has just proposed to the statesmen of the two neigh- 
boiing sister republics The struggle which for many long years the Mexican people have 
sustained against their interior tyrants has been a heroic struggle, worthy of a civilized and 
cultivated people, and in which the sympathies of the whole civilized world — of all the 
friends of political and religious liberty — ought to have been manifested in a frank and 
decided manner in behalf of the Mexican people, directed by the liberal party. I believe, 
gentlemen, that the cause of civil wars, not only in Mexico, but throughout all Spanish 
America, has been the clergy alone, who, when they come to acquire power in the state, 
always strive to overturn the government and to subordinate the temporal interests of 
society to their own. This attribute seems to belong principally to the Catholic clergy. 

" The struggle, then, in which up to this time the patriotic Mexicans have been engaged, 
was a holy struggle, and the sympathy of the whole people of the United States was with 
them - a people who, whatever may be their religious creeds, adopts as a fundamental 
principle the most complete religious liberty, and the absolute independence of the church 
from the state. 

" But now the sympathy of the United States is increased for the Mexican people, when, 
in addition to the facts already mentioned, we find this people struggling for their inde- 
pendence and nationality against a European nation, which, taking advantage of the civil 
strife in which we are engaged, has sought to establish before our eyes a form of govern- 
ment in open antagonism to our own. We cannot do less than receive this project in the 
same way as Europe would receive it were we to foment revolutions aud establish republics 
on that continent. 

"Thus it is that those statesmen in the United States who aid us to emerge from our 



MEXICAN AFP" AIRS. 415 

present difficulties, and to restore our power and legitimate influence, and those who in 
Mexico not only consummate the great work of establishing religious liberty on a solid 
basis, but who succeed in driving from their country the foreign invader, or at least keep 
the sacred fire of patriotism and of resistance to the invader burning, while we disembar- 
rass ourselves of our complications, deserve, in the highest degree, our sincere and ardent 
homage. 

"Gentlemen, the Egyptians used to place a burning lamp at the feet of their royal 
corpses On descending to the deep vaults in which the corpses were deposited, the lamp 
was naturally extinguished. 

"Let Europe place at Maximilian's feet the weak lamp of monarchical power. It will 
not burn in the free atmosphere of our continent." 

This speech was listened to with great attention and applauded with enthusiasm. 

Mr. Beekman then arose and said : 

"Gentlemen : Mexico has had illustrious poets of whom I cannot give the eulogy they 
deserve, but whose memory I am desirous you should honor, remembering the names of 
some of them, such as Atarcon, Heredia, Gorosteza, Oarpio, Calderon, and many others. I 
should like our illustrious and venerable friend, Mr. Bryant, as a worthy representative 
of the poets of our country, to respond to this toast." 

This toast having been loudly applauded, Mr. Bryant, after some allusion to the compli- 
mentary manner in which he had been called up, remarked that there were topics of 
greater importance on which he desired to say a few words, and proceeded thus : 

" We of the United States have constituted ourselves a sort of police of this New World. 
Again and again have we warned off the highwaymen and burglars of the Old World who 
stand at the head of its governments, styling themselves conquerors. We have said to 
them that if they attempted to pursue their infamous profession here they did it at their 
peril. But now, when this police is engaged in a deadly conflict with a band of ruffians, 
comes this Frenchman, knocks down an undefending bystander, takes his watch and purse, 
stiips him of his clothing, and makes off with the booty. This act of the French monarch 
is as base, cowardly, and unmanly as it is criminal and cruel. There is no person acquainted 
even in the slightest degree with the political history of the times who does not know that 
it would never have been perpetrated had not the United States been engaged in an expen- 
sive and bloody war within their own borders. 

"There is a proverbial phrase used by lawyers, who say of a purchaser of land who does 
not obtain a clear and undisputed title, that he has bought a lawsuit — paid out his money 
for a controversy in the courts. We may say of this Maximilian of Austria, that in accept- 
ing the crown of Mexico from the hands of Napoleon, he has accepted, not an empire, but 
a quarrel — a present quarrel with the people of Mexico, and a prospective quarrel with the 
people of the United States. The rule of a branch of the Austrian family will be no less 
hateful to the Mexicans than that of the Austrian monarch is to the inhabitants of Venice. 
Its yoke will be hated because it is a foreign yoke, laid upon their necks by strangers ; it 
will be hated because it is imposed by violence ; it will be hated because that violence was 
accompanied by fraud ; for never was there a more shallow and transparent deception than 
that of the convocation of notables, from whom Napoleon pretended to receive the supreme 
dominion over Mexico. 

"Then, as to the relations of this new emperor with the United States, does any one 
suppose that they can possibly be amicable ? Does any one suppose that, after our civil 
war is ended, as it soon will be, the numerous class whom it has trained to adventure, and 
made fond of a military life, will all remain quietly at home when the cause of liberty and 
independence in Mexico demands their aid ? Does any man doubt that, whatever may be 
the course taken by our government, they will cross the Mexican frontier by thousands, to 
take part in favor of the people of that country ? The party of liberty in Mexico will then 
have its auxiliaries close at hand, in a contiguous region, while the succors which the 
despot will need to protect his usurped dominion will be far away beyond the Atlantic. 

" Yet I wonder not that Maximilian should covet the possession of so noble a princi- 
pality as Mexico, provided he weie allowed to govern it in peace. I remember that, a 
few years since, in making a voyage to Europe in one of our steamers, there was a passenger 
on board to whom we gave the name of the Knight of the ' Woful Countenance.' He 
was a thin, dark man, dressed in black, with a very broad-brimmed hat, long features, and 
a most sorrowful aspect. I learned that he was a Mexican, and entered into conversation 
with him. He described the natural advantages and resources of his country with much 
of that eloquence which I believe is the natural inheritance of the Latin race. He spoke of 
its mountains, pregnant with ores of the precious and useful metals ; its vast plains and 
valleys of exhaustless fertility ; its variety of climates — in some regions possessing the 
temperature of perpetual spring, in which were reared all the productions of the temperate 
zone, and in the other places basking under a torrid sun, which ripens all the fruits of 
the tropics to their most perfect maturity. Yet these rich mines were unwrought, these 



416 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

fertile fields untilled, these regions with the climate of Paradise thinly peopled by a 
race without enterprise, almost without arts, and living almost from hand to mouth. This 
unhappy state of the country he attributed to the want of a permanent, enlightened, and 
liberal government, which, while maintaining peace and order, and securing to every man 
his individual rights as a freeman, left open every path of lawful enterprise. 

"We thought that we siw the dawn of this era of enlightened government in the 
administration of Juarez That dawn has been overcast by the clouds of a tempest wafted 
hither from Europe. May the darkness which lias gathered over it be of short continuance ; 
may th^se clouds be soon dispelled by the sunshine of liberty and peace, and Mexico, 
assured in her independence, take the high place which belongs to her in the family of 
nations " 

After the termination of this interesting speech, which, like the others, was repeatedly 
interrupted by prolonged applause, 

Mr. Beekman, rising- again, said : 

" Gentlemen : There is now among us a distinguished lawyer of Mexico, whose knowl- 
edge, probity and patriotism are acknowledged aud duly appreciated in that city, the 
dwelling-place of so many men of culture and privileged minds. This lawyer is Senor Don 
Ignacio Mariscal, secretary of the Mexican legation, and one of our guests. I propose 
gentlemen, that we drink his health, as well as that of his fellow lawyers of Mexico." 

The preceding toast was received by acclamations and great enthusiasm, after which Mr. 
Mariscal said : 

"Gentlemen : I never was more sorry than now for not having the control of your ex- 
pressive language, that I might give a full utterance to my sentiments. Yet I cannot help 
saying a few words to thank you very warmly for the kind and splendid manner in which 
you are complimenting the representative of my country, as well as for the enthusiastic 
allusions you have made aud applauded in honor of its leading patriots and distinguished 
men. Finally, gentlemen, the toast you have just dedicated to me, and the too benevolent 
terms in which it was proposed, are things Avhich I am not able to be thankful for in a suffi- 
cient way. I am perfectly aware that the general feeling of the people of the United .State- 
is most favorable to Mexico in her present struggle to resist conquest. But wheu I see that 
feeling shared by such prominent and enlightened citizens as you are, gentlemen, I consider 
it is not a blind sentiment, but rather a conviction, a deep sense of right and justice, as well 
as the knowledge of a danger common to both republics. I cherish the idea that while this 
unanimous sympathy for Mexico exists, my country will not be subjugated for a long time 
by the brutal force of a European army. The day will soon come, I trust, in which the 
sympathies of this great people will be no longer disregarded by any power in the world. 
You know, better than I do, which are the clouds now darkening your political horizon and 
preventing the break of that promising day. May they be soon dispelled ! The sun of 
America will then shine triumphant upon the end of your national disturbances and the dire- 
ful sufferings of Mexico." 

These remarks were much applauded and approved by demonstrations of assent. 

The President then said : 

"GENTLEMEN: We have drank to the President of Mexico, to the statesmen, poets, and 
lawyers of that republic; it is now time we should devote a toast to Mexican diplomats. 
Among them you will find an illustrious citizen who now occupies an elevated position in 
the army of his country. His name as a general and a diplomat is well known in Europe. 
It is General Don Jose Lopez Uraga, who, not long ago, represented his country at Berlin. 
I hope, gentlemen, that a toast for General Uraga will lie well received, and I beg our dis- 
tinguished friend, who formerly represented our country at the Hague, will respond in the 
name of the diplomatic corps." 

This toast, like the rest, was well received, all those present partaking of the same; after 
which Mr. Folsom expressed himself substantially as follows, it being impossible for us to 
obtain from the orator any notes : 

" Sir : Being at this moment invited to speak to this toast, and without preparation of any 
kind, it will be difficult for me to say anything worthy of my hearers. Nevertheless, although 
without regularity or good order, I will say a few words, for I cannot do less than accede' to 
the request of our worthy president, Mr. Beekman— a gentleman who is worthy of all my 
appreciation from his antecedents in the senate of New York, as the representative of our 
rich and powerful city. I have always been attached to flic beautiful Castilian languagi — 
to that language so robust and manly, vet so soft and insinuating, which is capable of the 
highest flights of eloquence, as well as of the sweetest sentiments of love. Its study has 
occupied apart of my lite, and I declare that it would have been difficult for me to' have 
found a more delightful task. This love of the Spanish language could not but extend to 
the generous people who speak it, and more especially to the people of Spanish America, 
among whom .Mexico occupies the first place, for its' extent, resources, the beauty of its 
climate, the fertility of the soil, and, above all, from the very essential circumstance of being 
OUT. neighbor, and having, sinee her emancipation, adopted republican institutions similar to 
those which have made our happiness* Guided by these sentiments, I undertook years ago 
a translation of the letters which llernan Cortex addressed to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 417 

giving an account of the conquest of New Spain — letters which contain very important his- 
torical data, and which were then entirely unknown to us until Mr. Prescott, our immortal 
historian, published his history of the conquest of Mexico. I say all this that it may be 
seen that my sympathy for the affairs of Mexico is of long standing. And is it possible that 
it could cease to exist now that her sons are gloriously fighting to preserve an independence 
which it cost them so many sacrifices to achieve? No ; certainly no. It exists in me now 
more actively than ever, as it does in the heart of every true American ; for on this point, as 
some of the gentlemen have already well said, the opinion of our people is unanimous. 
Every one knows that on the Mexican soil a struggle is going on for a principle left us as an 
inheritance by one of our great statesmen, and without whose strict observance our institu- 
tions and political institutions run great danger. I wish, then, that Mexico will sustain, 
Avithout rest, the struggle to Avhich she has been so unjustly provoked, and I do not fear that 
I deceive myself in saying, in the name of the American people, that, as soon as our civil 
war is ended, our aid to Mexico will not be limited to barren sympathy." 

The applause which followed this speech being ended, Mr. Beekman arose and said : 

"Gentlemen : I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Navarro, one of our guests, and 
chief of the medical staff of the Mexican army during the heroical defence of the city of 
Puebla, when attacked by the French. At the end of the siege, Dr. Navarro delivered up 
all the French wounded who had been amputated and attended to by him in the best possible 
condition, and offering every hope of a complete cure, many of them being already in a 
convalescent state, as was fully testified by the surgeon in chief of the besieging army. 
At most none of those amputated had died, whilst at the French camp nearly every amputa- 
tion made upon either French or Mexican had had an unfavorable result. Judge, then, gen- 
tlemen, of the skill of Dr. Navarro in his difficult art by that fact ; and when you know that 
those services were given by him, on the occasion to which I allude, entirely gratis, and 
guided only by his patriotic feelings, you will be pleased to drink to his honor." 

The toast was received with enthusiasm, and Dr. Navarro was saluted with cheers. Dr. 
Parker being called upon by the president to respond, he expressed himself more or less 
as follows : 

' ' Gentlemen : Dr. Navarro does not only deserve our consideration as a distinguished 
surgeon and professor of medical science, but he is still more worthy of our appreciation and 
our homage as a man loyal to his country — as a true patriot. I will add an important fact 
to what the president said, which will doubtless attract your attention. When the general- 
in-chief of the French army was persuaded of the ability and skill of Dr. Navarro, and of 
the kindness and attention he had shown to the wounded Frenchmen, he made various offers 
of the most advantageous kind, through trustworthy sources, to transfer his services to the 
medical corps of the expeditionary army, fixing himself the remuneration and advantages 
which he should enjoy. Then, gentlemen, Dr. Navarro, like a true member of my profes- 
sion — like a loyal son of Hippocrates — energetically repelled these seductive offers. I cannot 
help but remember in connexion with this act the sublime action of the venerable father of 
medicine, who, when solicited, implored, by the conqueror Alexander to give him his services 
in exchange for immense treasures, replied with sublime abnegation : ' My talent, my art, 
my existence, all belong to Greece, and never can they be employed against my country.' 
Such, gentlemen, was the conduct of Dr. Navarro under circumstances analogous to those 
of Hippocrates. We offer him, then, the homage which he deserves ; and in doing so we 
do not forget that in his country they are now contending, as in Greece in former days, with 
an invader who is aided in nothing except force and treason to cany out his ominous inten- 
tions. We hope, however, that the sons of Mexico, each one, and in the place belonging to 
him, will imitate the patriotism and undoubted loyalty of Dr. Navarro. [Applause.] In 
this way there is no doubt that that republic, our sister, will be saved from the crisis which 
now threatens her, and, animated by our sympathies, will succeed in carrying forward her 
interests and safety to the success her immense elements demand for her. 

The president then announced that Dr. Navarro was about to speak. He spoke as fol- 
lows : 

" Gentlemen : I regret very much that my slight knowledge of your beautiful language 
does not permit me to duly express my feelings. I feel the greatest satisfaction in being a 
witness to the ardent sympathy manifested towards my dear country by persons of such a 
high social position and so respected for their scientific and literary knowledge. I have no 
words to express my gratitude for the toast and for the kind allusions which you have been 
pleased to make concerning me. Mexico, in defending her independence, has been struggling 
for a long time past with one of the most powerful monarchs of Europe, and she will struggle 
year after year, proving in this way the patriotic sentiments of her sons, and that she is 
worthy of that sympathy which all over the world every friend of justice and right share 
with you in extending towards her. Please to receive, gentlemen, my most sincere prayers 
for the ending of your civil war — of the bloody struggle which has shaken this great republic 
and given to European tyrants the opportunity of audaciously treading on the American 
continent — this sacred ground on which liberty only reigns, and in which thrones are but 
the sorrowful remembrances of times which will never return again. The time will come, 
and perhaps it is not very far off, when we shall see our republic free of all foreign interven- 
tion and your glorious Union happily restored — being once more, as it always has been, the 
astonishment of the civilized world and the fear of the despots of the Old World." 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 27 



418 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

His discourse being- loudly applauded, Mr. Beekman then said ; 

"Gentleman: There is among our invited guests a gentleman, who, having done com- 
mercial business for some years in the city of Philadelphia, we will consider as the Mexican 
representative of that hardworking and intelligent profession. This gentleman is Senor 
Fernando de la Cuesta, a member of the Mexican legation, who is at present here, and whom, 
I hope, Ave will have the pleasure of hearing to-night. I request of our friend, the ex-mayor 
of this city, who represents New York commerce, that he will be pleased to respond to this 
toast, after which I promise myself that Senor Cuesta will favor us with a speech." 

Mr. Opdvke said : 

" Gentlemen: In the name of the merchants of this city, to whose society I have the 
honor to belong, and of the city itself, whose mandate and representative I had the honor to 
be for the last two years, although it is no longer permitted me to speak officially in its name, 
I have the pleasure of expressing my profound sympathy for the cause which the people of the 
neighboring republic are sustaining against European invasion. My attention could not but 
have been most strongly called to the fact which our distinguished guest referred to concern- 
ing what M. Thiers said in the corps legislatif of France on the manner in which, in his 
judgment, the Archduke Maximilian would be received in this city. So far would we be from 
making him demonstrations of regard and sympathy that, as you know, and I think it right 
to remark on this occasion, we have made such demonstrations precisely to those powers that 
are least the friends of France. When the Russian squadron arrived at this port the whole 
city, as you will remember, received it with enthusiasm, and the most distinguished mem- 
bers of our society gave it welcome and honored it, as it was right to do with the noble sailors 
of a great nation, which has given us so many proofs of sympathy and consideration under 
circumstances the most difficult that our country has ever passed through, and which, far from 
desiring to draw any advantage whatever from our misfortunes, magnanimously desires their 
speedy termination. When latterly a French squadron arrived at our port there were not 
wanting those who would desire that similar demonstrations to those offered to the Russians 
should be made to the French. I, as chief magistrate of the city, opposed myself to any such 
act, and, in proceeding thus, I am sure of it, and you know it well, I was only the faithful 
interpreter of the will and desire of the city which honored me with its confidence. If, during 
the time in which I was mayor, the Archduke Maximilian should have passed through here, 
and if there had been any one who would pretend to offer him a public demonstration of sym- 
pathy, I woidd uot have permitted it ; and I believe that no citizen who has self-respect will 
permit it if, by accident, Napoleon should think of sending him through here to try the sen- 
timents of the people of the United States in reference to the enterprise which he is endeavoring 
to cany out in the Mexican republic. The sentiment of all our classes and all our parties is 
only one in this matter, as has been said with much justice. It is, then, entirely hostile to 
any armed intervention of Europe on this continent, and more especially to that which seeks 
to overthrow a republic to erect a monarchy." 

After the applause brought forth by the preceding speech, Mr. De la Cuesta said : 

"Gentlemen: It would be superfluous, perhaps presumptuous in me, to add one more 
word to what has been already said ; yet I cannot help tendering you my most sincere and 
heartfelt thanks for the beautiful manner in which you have been pleased to express your 
good wishes and warm sympathy for the land where I first saw the light and breathed the 
sweet air of life. As the last draught of water to the camel in the desert cheers and comforts 
him through the dreary path that lies before him, so will the remembrance of this night cheer 
and comfort me, whatever may be my path in life, to sustain the liberty, independence, and 
integrity of our national soil. I cannot answer better the allusion made by the gentleman 
who so worthily occupies the chair as to my representing the commerce of Mexico, having 
once followed its pursuits, than by proposing the following toast : 

" The city of New York — first in sciences, arts, commerce, wealth; in fact, in all. First, 
also, let me add, in extending to us her noble sympathies for our holy cause. May she al- 
ways prosper as she has hitherto prospered ; and may she not only be the metropolis of the 
United States, but the metropolis of the whole world." 

This toast was saluted with loud applause. 

Mr. Beekman then said: 

"GENTLEMEN: There has been in Mexico gnat advancement in the fine arts. A proof of 
this we find in the San Carlos Academy, where painters and sculptors of undeniable merit 
have been educated. We find a proof, also, in the paintings of Cabrera, Cordero, Mata and 
several others, as well as in the admirable buildings constructed by such Mexican architects 
as Tolsa, to whom Mexico owes her mining college. I propose a toast to Mexican tine arts, 
and let us hear what our learned friend Mr. Sturges will say about this." 

This toast having renewed great applause, Mr. Sturges said: 

"Mr. CHAIRMAN : I am taken quite by surprise in being called upon by you to respond to 
your allusion to the fine arts and architecture of Mexico. On some other occasion 1 should 
he most happy to speak upon such a theme; at present I prefer to speak a few words of en- 
couragement to our distinguished guest, in the hope that his noble country may soon be free 
from her foreign and domestic enemies. When that is accomplished, we shall see everything 
that is beautiful, noble, and useful springing to lite with new vigor, and that glorious country 
will bee e all that God intended she should he. We know what it is, sir. to have foreign and 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 419 

domestic enemies, although we have no foreign enemy on our soil. It is not from any love 
which the enemy of Mexico bears us that his armies are not in Texas and Louisiana. It is 
the fear ot his own people that restrains him. I have the word of a French gentleman ' who 
knows whereof he speaks ' to support this statement. He said to me, ' Eest assured, sir, the 
Emperor will withdraw from Mexico the moment he can do so with any kind of credit to 
himself. The French people are against him in his Mexican movement, as they are against 
any interference in your affairs.' I do not think, sir, that our honored guest can have failed 
to discover that the determination is as firmly fixed in the hearts of our people that no foreign 
government shall be established in Mexico, as it is that no separation shall take place between 
the States of this Union. Our own affairs settled, and it would not be sixty days before our 
armies would be in Mexico if her people desired it. My prayer to God is that she may hold 
out until we are ready for this. I respond most fully to the closing sentiment of my honorable 
friend, Mr. Bancroft : ' Let the Austrian lamp burn in the grave of Austria ; it will not burn 
in the free atmosphere of America.' " 

After this, Mr. Beekman spoke as follows : 

Gentlemen : Mexico too has had her illustrious governors, who have advanced the people 
over whom they have commanded, and who are well worthy of our homage. The actual 
President of the republic, before reaching that high position, Avas governor of the state of 
Oaxaca, and during the eight years that his administration lasted he accomplished so much 
good, and developed so well the resources of that rich state, that he succeeded in placing it in 
the first rank of the various states composing the Mexican confederation. General Doblado 
is another model governor, Avhose beneficent administration, even during a period of terrible 
intestine commotions, caused the state of Guanajuato to prosper to such a degree that it has 
been the astonishment of the other Mexican states. Let us drink, then, gentlemen, to the 
governors of Mexico, and Ave hope that our illustrious friend, Avho formerly Avas governor of 
this state, will be pleased to answer to this toast. 

The toast haA'ing been received Avith general approbation, Mr. "Washington Hunt responded 
to it in a lengthy speech, Avhich Ave cannot giA r e here, trusting to memory alone, for fear of 
not doing justice to it. With the object that there should be the greatest accuracy possible 
in the report of the speeches Ave haA r e made, Mr. Romero requested the gentlemen Avho had 
delivered them to give him a memorandum, as far as they could recollect, of Avhat they had 
said. Mr. Hunt, in reply, wrote the folloAving letter: 

Albemarle Hotel, New York, March 31, 1864. 
Dear Sir : It would afford me pleasure to comply Avith the request contained in your note 
of yesterday, but as my remarks Avere desultory and unprepared, instead of attempting an 
accurate sketch, I will confine myself to tAvo leading points, Avhieh I deem of the most essen- 
tial import at the present juncture. 

1. I intended to utter an earnest and emphatic protest against the French invasion of 
Mexico, and the audacious efforts to overthroAv the republic and erect upon its ruins a mon- 
archy, to be upheld by a foreign force, acting in conjunction Avith a small faction of domestic 
traitors. I denounced it as a Avanton offence against republican liberty and the independence 
of nations. 

2. I intended to express the opinion that the United States will not permit, for any long 
period, the armed occupation of Mexico by a foreign poAver. 

Our domestic conflict will terminate in the re-establishment of the national authority over 
all the States of the Union. The attainment of this result is not, I trust, very far distant. 

Then the people of this country will manifest their sympathy for the people of Mexico in 
active and efficient co-operation, and if need be they will rally to your aid in a resolute and 
manly struggle for the recoA'ery of your national liberty and independence. 

The time approaches Avhen our goA r ernment will reassert and maintain its Avell-defined pol- 
icy, Avhich is, that no European pOAver shall be allowed to subjugate the people or destroy 
republican institutions on any part of the American continent. 
I remain, Avith great respect, your obedient servant, 

WASHINGTON HUNT. 

Hon. Matias Romero, Sfc, fyc, 8fc. 

Mr. Beekman then said: "Gentlemen, you must knoAv that in Mexico there have not 
been Avanting historians of great merit. The names of Mora, Zavala, and Bustamente 
must be familiar to some of you. We Avill drink, then, to the historians of Mexico, and we 
hope that our illustrious friend, the president of the NeAv York Historical Society, will say a 
few Avords on this matter." 

Mr. De Peyster, rising, said : "I yield, sir, to your request, merely in the private char- 
acter I am here this evening. I came to express, by my presence, the sympathy which I feel 
toAvards a sister republic, torn by intestine strife, brought upon her by a party that should 
have soothed, not inflicted, a national Avound. I am reminded of the sad position of Mexico 
by the like sad realities which press upon my country. I knoAv full Avell Avhat Avould be the 
intensity of my feelings Avere my native land invaded by foreign bayonets, to compel her to 
change her free government for one obnoxious to her people. I came here Avith a further 
vieAv, to testify toAvards our distinguished guest my deep interest in the cause which he 



420 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

represents — not by words — for I came to listen, not to speak ; and therefore took no thought 
■with reference to the latter. 

" But, Mr. Chairman, being up, I have ideas furnished by the suggestive remarks just made 
by Sehor Romero. I well remember the points presented by him in December last in a 
speech made on an occasion similar to the present. He considered the church party iu 
Mexico as the direct cause of the civil war there, as slavery is of the rebellion here. He 
alleged that this church party sought foreign intervention to re-establish its power, as the 
slave power here sought the like intervention, in order to build up a confederacy based on 
the perpetual sacrifice of certain human rights, and designed to be destructive of our na- 
tional sovereignty. 

"Thus far, this parallel between the United States and Mexico truly extends. But, sir, 
there is a difference in the analogy of these cases not to be overlooked. Were foreign inter- 
vention to take here the course it has pursued in Mexico, the result in this country would be 
as a tornado is to the storm now sweeping over our land. England and France know this ! 
It is not their good will that stays their further interference, but the danger of the risk from 
the blows which a free people, aroused to do their utmost at any sacrifice, could and would 
inflict in return. 

"Educated in the school of democracy, I have, sir, adhered to the principles learned there. 
When our civil war broke out, I had doubts, on constitutional grounds, regarding the rights 
of slave-ow r ners. But when I observed how slaves were made instruments to defend free- 
men striving to preserve the Union, I deemed, in a military point of view, that it was in- 
dispensable to strike from the hands of rebels their main prop ; and all my constitutional 
scruples vanished before this military necessity. I believe, sir, all loyal men — loyal without 
mental reservations — deem it right to remove any obstacle for the preservation of the Union ! 
Therefore, I have no affinity with traitors, either south or in disguise among us, who keep 
' the promise to the ear ;' or with 'peace democrats," in my judgment more alive to party 
interest than to our national straggle. 

"What, sir, is the result thus far in our civil war? Why, as slavery proved itself to have 
been the source of all our evils, loyal men gave it its death blow. Like all monsters of great 
strength, determined purpose, and defiant resistance, it will die hard ; but despite its strug- 
gles, die it will. 

"Now, from our conflict let me for a few moments turn to our sister republic and to her 
accumulated ills, and contrast her purposes with our own. Mexico, with a fertile soil, genial 
climate, aud unbounded mineral wealth, is divided into various conflicting parties. Her 
church party is the predominant class, intent in maintaining its present influence and re- 
covering its lost power. There are the patriots, struggling for the government of their 
choice ; and, if I am rightly informed, there is a class, influenced by the ecclesiastics, either 
hostile to or indifferent towards the present republican form of government. It is said that 
the church party now wavers in their appreciation of French intervention. If this be so, 
and Mexicans would unitedly rally as the people of our loyal States have rallied, the ills 
which Mexico is now experiencing would be in the condition of the monster evil that we 
have mortally wounded. The form of domestic treason in Mexico we know. The motives 
of the French Emperor are too patent to be disguised. Senor Romero has thrown ample 
light on both these subjects. 

' ' Whether a recently published mention of a leave-taking between the Emperor and his 
Austrian protege be true, or a jeu (Vesprit, it is suggestive of probable ground of belief. 
'You go,' said the former, 'to embrace a rock of silver' — a figure of speech which sym- 
bolized the mineral wealth, of Avhich bars of silver and Mexican dollars had proved to be in 
Europe the best of advertisements. 

"The church party in Mexico had long suffered under a disease of very great prevalence at 
all times and everywhere. The Emperor caught it through this party contact, and he gave 
it to his Austrian favorite. This disease in ancient Rome was called aurl sacra fame*. 
There, where the central word (sacra) was connected with offering to the infernal deities, or 
with impious or unholy purposes, it meant the reverse of its proper definition — namely, 
accursed. The tripartite association just alluded to, under the hallucination created by this 
disease, have this 'accursed desire of wealth,' and think to overthrow the Mexican repub- 
lic, to buildup in its stead a monarchy, and thus possess this 'rock of silver.' 

"Sir, the snake is the emblem of evil. We took the reptile up when feeble and warmed it in 
the national bosom. When it gained strength it turned aud stung us. It has its reward. 
If Mexicans will rally round their national standard, and imitate the gallant bird on their 
national arms, who has in his beak a malignant snake, aud with his determined courage and 
undaunted decision extinguish, like him, the reptile's ability to do further mischief, all will 
yet go well in their beautiful land. In due season our rebels will have to ' succumb ' to the 
loyal will. Then the republics of North America will shake hands in brotherly sentiment 
and alliance, and unitedly maintain, inviolate, 'the Monroe doctrine.' 

The chairman then said: "We have among us, gentlemen, a very distinguished gentle- 
man from Brooklyn — that sister and neighbor of ours. We would like to hear what, in her 
name, he will tell us in relation to a matter that has been the theme of so many speakers." 

Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont then spoke, and iu short aud eloquent phrases said that he was 
sure that the feelings of the citizens of Brooklyn, with respect to the French policy in Mex- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 421 

ico, were identical with those of the citizens of New York and of the entire country ; that 
on that account, and fearing to tire the audience, he would not speak at length on the sub- 
ject. He concluded by showing that the people of all classes and parties in the United States 
sympathized greatly with those Mexicans who were resisting the French invasion, and 
saying that he would act according to that feeling on the first opportunity offered to him. 

The president again arose and solicited Mr. Clift, in the name of the lawyers of New 
York, to express his feelings. 

Mr. Clift said that his voice being hoarse on account of a cold, he could only say a few 
words. That he, as well as all of his profession, and the entire American people, sympathized 
greatly with the holy cause that the Mexican people were defending at present. That he 
had the firm conviction that the Mexicans alone would conquer their European invaders ; 
and in case of this not happening, they should have the powerful help of this nation, which 
never will allow the establishment of a European monarchy on the American continent. 
And lastly, that he coincided in the opinions of the distinguished persons who had preceded 
him, and especially with those of the venerable Mr. Bryant. 

The president said that, according to his views, all the persons there present would have- 
great pleasure in hearing some words from Mr. Charles A. Bristed, who, rising, said: 
' ' Once upon a time the Saracens — then a mighty people — took it into their heads that it 
would be a nice thing to conquer Old Spain, and they did conquer Spain so effectually that 
it took eight hundred years to drive them out. But they were driven out, and none of them 
are there at this day. I believe that, in like manner, the French will be driven out of Mex- 
ico, if it takes eight hundred years to do so." 

A gentleman exclaimed, "We do things faster now-a-days. Say eight years." 

The chairman, pointing to Mr. Dodge, said : "I think that our young and esteemed friend 
will have something to tell us, in the name of Young America, which he so well represents." 

Mr. Dodge spoke as follows: "As perhaps the youngest, Mr. Chairman, who has been 
honored by an invitation on this most interesting and delightful occasion, it is my right and 
privilege to speak for that large and influential class in our country known as ' Young 
America.' and I can assure our honored guest that the full and entire sympathy of the young 
men of the land is with him and with his oppressed country. The tread of a French inva- 
sion on this continent is to them a direct insult ; and were our own sad Avar over, I believe 
there is not a town, or village, or hamlet, where a full company would not spring to arms to 
aid our sister republic in her glorious struggle. I give, sir, as a sentiment, in which I know 
all will heartily join — The Monroe doctrine ; Americans can never allow the heel of European 
despotism to place its imprint upon the soil of our western continent." 

This toast was loudly applauded, after which Mr. Beekman proposed one in honor of the 
committee of stewards who had so splendidly discharged their duties, begging Mr. Hamersley 
to speak in behalf of the committee. 

This toast was much applauded, and three cheers were given for the stewards. 

Mr. John W. Hamersley, in the name of the stewards, (himself, Mr. Astor, and Mr. 
Cliros, ) said : 

' ' Sir, it is hardly fair to call on us while your hearts are beating with fervid thoughts, 
and your ears ringing with burning words. Had this toast been on the programme, one of 
my coadjutors would have prepared an address worthy of the compliment and the occasion. 
This committee, sir, was not chosen for their gifts of utterance, but for those humbler tastes 
which only lend a grace to eloquence. Our duties are aesthetic, industrial, and artistic. We 
have compassed the ends of the earth, the depths of the sea. We have levied contributions 
on the four winds of heaven, to cluster here all that can tempt the appetite or fascinate the 
ear and eye, and we fancied our mission accomplished. However, there is the post prandial 
law, the despotism of the wine cup, to which we owe allegiance — the only despotism, sir, 
which the descendants of the Huguenots or pilgrim fathers will ever tolerate on the conti- 
nent of North America. We are here, sir, in menace to none, but firmly and respectfully 
in the majesty of manhood and in consciousness of power to reassert a principle imbibed with 
our mother's milk, a household word, a dogma of American faith ; but while we cordially 
grasp the hand of a sister republic in the darkest hour of her trial, that grasp has due empha- 
sis and significance. With her, sir, we have kindred traditions. Each of us has hewn an 
empire from the wilderness ; each of us has expelled the oppressor ; and both of us, with 
tattered banners drenched in the gore of hero martyrs, are now appealing from treachery to 
the God of Battles. We have a common future ; for who can doubt that our successes, (and 
the death knell of treason has already rung) — who can doubt that the triumph of our arms 
will be the signal for the eagles of Austerlitz ' to change their base' from the pyramids of 
Puebla for their perch on the towers of Notre Dame ? Permit me here, sir, to express a hope, 
suggested by the season, (God grant it may be a prophecy, )' that the Easter chimes of 
Mexico of the coming year, with the glad tidings of a Saviour risen, shall peal from sierra to 
sierra, from ocean to ocean, with the glad tidings of a nation risen, a nation born again. 
(Cheers.) 

" Sir, I would offer a toast seldom forgotten in this Eden of women. It is wise to fling the 
garland of chivalry over the stern realities of life, nay, over the carnage of the battle-field. 
It is graceful in our honored guests to seek in the bright eyes and warm hearts of those they 
love, in their sunset home, a solace for hope deferred. It is meet in us all, revelling amid 



422 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

these symbols of hope and joy, of passion and power, our twin standards nestling in each 
other's folds in sweet communion of the starried past and gushing hopes, (these roses and 
violets breathing incense to the throne of grace, their Easter hymn of thanks and praise,) to 
remember who it is that scatters these jewels of Paradise over our thorny path, who it is that 
smoothes the pillow of affliction. And when our statesman soldier shall send these our 
greetings to his fatherland, let him say that these are sons of sires who wielded the destinies 
of our country, whose names are carved on her escutcheon, like the name of Phidias on the 
shield of Minerva. Here are her merchant princes, whose argosies girdle the globe ; here are 
her gifted men, whose thoughts touch the hearts or nerve the souls of the nomad in his 
desert and the prince upon his throne. Say, sir, that here is our western lark, who lends to 
devotion the muses' wings. Say, sir, that the author of 'Thanatopsis,' and these sous, 
worthy of their sires, send a brother's blessing to sisters bowed in grief. Fire their souls 
with the thrilling words of the Spartan matron giving a shield to her son: 'Return with this 
or upon this.' Tell them of the mother of the Gracchi, whose only jewels were her sons. 
Tell them of the death dirge of our red man, with 'back to the field and feet to the foe.' 
Tell them that the spirit of your own Guatiinozin hovers around your war-path, aud exhort, 
nay, adjure them to swear their brothers over the fresh graves of their comrades never to 
bury the tomahawk while the iron heel of Europe treads your soil. Sir, it is fitting, while 
the accents of sweet music recall tender and happy memories, (man imaged by that armed 
cactus, woman by that graceful palm,) it is holy to consecrate the hour to her who was last 
at the cross and first at the sepulchre. Sir, I propose a toast, to which your heart's pidse 
will echo : 

"The daughters of Mexico — Fair as her sons are brave." 

After the very enthusiastic and prolonged applause which Mr. Hamersley's beautiful toast 
brought forth, the chairman said that the audience were anxious to hear the other member 
of the committee of stewards then present, (Mr. Cliros, ) who, after having remarked that 
he had not at all been prepared to speak, said as follows : 

" Mr. President and Gentlemen: Enough has been said in the speeches ahead}- made 
this evening to indicate most conclusively the sympathy which prevails in our midst in behalf 
of our sister republic, all of which I heartily indorse. The unanimous and vociferous voices 
show unhesitatingly the determination to oppose all encroachments of foreign powers upon 
any portion of this continent. Mexico, in her present struggle, needs assistance, and soon 
we shall be in a position to afford it. The principles of republican rule are so strongly 
imbedded in the minds of the people of both Mexico and America as to secure, for all time, 
that as the mode of government, and to cause both countries to stand in sympathy by each 
other." 

These remarks were received with applause. It was 12 o'clock, and the enthusiasm of 
that interesting party had not diminished. At that time the audience took leave of Senor 
Romero and the Mexican gentlemen who accompanied him, expressing in earnest words the 
sincerity of their sentiments in favor of Mexico. 

Thus ended this demonstration made by persons who undoubtedly represent the most 
select portion of society in this country, whilst at almost the same time the real representatives 
of the people, that is to say, the House of Representatives itself declared "unanimously" 
that the United States would never consent to the establishment of a monarchy which 
would arise, under the auspices of Europe, upon the ruins of a republic on the American 
continent. 

After all this, can Maximilian ever sit quietly upon the Mexican throne, when he beholds 
at his feet a precipice? Can he enjoy the possession of his imperial crown, when it can only 
be a crown of thorns ? A sad reign, indeed, awaits him ; nay, more than sad, it will be but 
transient. 

M E W U . 
Lc tnardi 29 Mars, ]S(i4. 

HUITRES. 
POTAGES. 

A la Salvator. Consomme' de vol&ille. 

Hors d'oeuvres. 

Varies. Varies. Boudins de gibier a la Richelieu. 

Ki.i r.\ fes. 

Baumon dc Kennebeck a la Regence. Aloses, same bearnaise. Filet de boeuf ;i I'Anda- 
louse. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 423 



Entrees. 

Chapons a la Perigord. Trimbale a la Parisienne. Salmi de beeassines aux truffes. 
Pate de foie gras en beltevue. Chaufroid de pluviers. 

Sorbet. 

Cardinal an vin dn Rhin. 

Rotis. 

Paons trnffes. Canvas-back ducks. 

Entremets. 

Petits poits. Flageolets. Articliauts farcis. Asperges. 

Entremets Sucres. 

Trimbale a la don Bazan. Ponding a la Dalbertos. Gelee muscat. Patzo di Borgo, 
Pain de fraise aguado. Gatean portugais. Biscuit d'Espagne. Charlotte Doria. Pieces 
mexicaines. Sultane aux marrons. Bombo Spongada. Napolitaine. 

Fruits et Dessert. 

DELMONICO. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, June 2, 1864. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 28th 
ultimo, covering a translation into the English language of the documents pre- 
viously enclosed to me in your unofficial note of the 26th ultimo. 
I avail, &c. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Sefior M. Romero, Sfc., Sp., fyc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seioard. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation of the United States of America, 

Washington, May 31, 1864. 
Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information 
of the government of the United States, extracts of two discussions, translated 
into English, relating to the affairs of Mexico, which took place ahout the mid- 
dle of the month ending this day, in the legislative assembly of Paris, in ref- 
lation to the budget of the French empire. The first extract, which is translated 
from No. 132 of "Le Moniteur Universel," of Paris, (page 164,) under date 
of the 11th of May referred to, contains the portion of the speech which the 
deputy, Mr. Berryer, made during the session of the 10th, in reference to the 
resources which the French government expects to obtain from what it terms 
" the Mexican indemnity." From this speech it appears that the loan which the 
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, now called the Emperor of Mexico, 
has attempted to negotiate in Europe, would yield him, supposing the whole 
amount of it were negotiated, the sum of one hundred and twenty millions of 
francs, so that the pecuniary responsibilities which he has accepted thus far 
would compel him to disburse the sum of one hundred and twenty-five millions 
of francs. From this alone, it can readily be seen that, even should the Arch- 



424 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

duke Maximilian meet with no other difficulties in the Mexican republic than the 
pecuniary ones, he would find himself unable to establish, and even still more 
so to consolidate, the monarchical government which the Emperor of the French 
has sent him to set up on this continent. 

The pecuniary responsibilities which the Emperor of the French has caused 
the said archduke to accept, and the amounts which he would have to pay for 
the support of an army and navy required to keep some of our cities subject to 
his control, and to blockade some of our ports, cannot be less than from forty 
to fifty millions of dollars per annum; while all the resources of the Mexican 
republic, supposing that he could control them all, cannot produce, under the 
present circumstances, more than fifteen millions of dollars. 

The second extract, among those enclosed, contains those passages referring 
to Mexico, in the speeches delivered in the same assembly during the session 
of the 12th of May, by the deputy, Mr. Jules Favre, and the minister of state, 
Mr. Rouher. 

In the first of these speeches you will find very judicious reflections upon the 
versatility and deep cunning of the policy adopted by the Emperor Napoleon 
in reference to my country, 

In the second, will be noted, besides the arguments already known, and 
which are founded upon the misrepresentation of facts, artfully prepared and 
sustained by all the imperial agents, sundry allusions to the policy of the United 
States, and a circular from the department for foreign affairs addressed to the 
French diplomatic agents, which was read by Mr. Rouker, and in which an 
account is given of the interview between Mr. Dayton and Mr. Drouyn de 
l'Huys, respecting the resolution adopted by the House of Representatives of 
the United States, on the 4th of April last, in reference to the French interven- 
tion in Mexico, in a manner somewhat different from that given to you by Mr. 
Dayton himself, as appears from the correspondence recently sent by the Pres- 
ident to the House of Representatives, on this subject. 

I therefore omit the remarks to which these speeches give rise, because they 
cannot escape the observation of the government of the United States. 

These last-mentioned speeches are taken from the No. 134, of the "Mon- 
iteur Universel," (pages 669 and 670,) dated the 13th of the said month of May. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. "William H. Seward, Sp., 8fc„ Sfc. 



CORPS LEGISLATIF. 

Session of Tuesday, May 10, 1864. 

M. de MORNY, president, in the chair. 

After the reading of the journal and some preliminary proceedings, the discussion of the 
budget was resumed, and M. BERRYER addressed the body. The part of his speech relating 
to Mexican affairs was as follows: 

M. Berryer. * * * * The second resource will give us an occasion for 

more sad and more pointed observations. This second resource is the Mexican indemnity. 

What is the state of things in this respect 1 We have regulated the indemnity for the 
war — for the Avar which really began in a costly manner only from the time of the departure 
of General Forey, if I am not mistaken, in the commencement of lt~t>2. For two years past 
we have fixed the indemnity due by Mexico at a sum of two hundred and seventy millions. 
That is the figure set down in the convention. 

Two hundred and seventy millions ! Pardon me if I insist upon an assertion which I 
believe I did not make without due consideration, at the beginning of this year, when I said 
that the animal expense of our Mexican expedition could he estimated for 1864, as for the 
other years, at one hundred and fifty millions. Now we are told, "Sec, we have reached 
only two hundred and seventy millions."' 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 425 

You have made an estimate on terms extremely favorable to the government which you 
have established in Mexico ; you have made an estimate of two hundred and seventy mil- 
lions. That, for two years, is very near the sum of three hundred millions, to which I 
foresaw the expenses would amount — a sum to which I believe they have in fact amounted.. 
We shall see afterwards. 

However that may be, we have fixed our indemnity at two hundred and seventy millions. 
Out of these two hundred and seventy millions a loan has been contracted for and a creation 
of rentes decided on. By a decree issued at Miramar, on the 11th of Apr'l last, two sections 
of rente have been established; one of twelve millions for the wants of the new government 
at Mexico, and one of six million six hundred thousand francs on account of the two hun- 
dred and seventy millions due to France as an indemnity for the war ; that is to say, we are 
assured of a sum of sixty or sixty-six millions. 

Such is one of the provisions of the decree. A loan is effected; the negotiators of the 
loan are the English firm of Glynn & Company. I know not who has entered to participate 
in their enterprise, in their speculation, or at least into the commission which they receive. 
The negotiators announce to the public that they are going to borrow eighteen million six 
hundred thousand livres of rente. Pardon me, and attribute it only to the too intimate 
knowledge which I have of the jurisprudence of the courts that decide on the means of raising 
an imaginary credit ; pardon me if my experience exerts too great an influence upon the 
estimate which I make of the manner in which the Mexican loan has been announced. I 
have here in my hand the prospectus of the negotiators. It announces an English and 
French loan. What does that mean ? Has England, has France, borrowed ? That England 
and France should contribute to the loan which is made for Mexico I can understand, and 
we will presently see to what extent. But such an announcement would seem to indicate 
to unreflecting minds that England and France are to a certain extent guarantors of the 
loan which is about to be issued. 

This loan is announced by the negotiators as yielding a net interest of ten per cent. It is 
moreover announced that it is going to be issued at 63, and they promise a reimbursement 
of the intermediate sum of eighty francs for every six francs of rente. Finally, it is announced 
that there is a financial committee; that this financial committee is established at Paris ; that 
it is composed of a Mexican commissioner, an English commissioner, and a French com- 
missioner; and that this financial committee, sitting at Paris, has the honor of being presided 
over by one of the most important men in our financial affairs — a senator and former governor 
of the bank — the Count de Germiny. With all this show and parade it is that the loan is 
placed before the public. I may say even that it amounts to an abuse to employ all this 
superfluity of announcements. 

However that be, what has become of the loan ? That is a question which I address to 
the representatives of the government. It is important for us to know, on various accounts. 
There are two sections in the loan. There is, first, that of twelve millions of rente for the 
account of the Emperor Maximilian; then there is a second division of 6,600,000 francs of 
rente for the account of the French government, to which this amount of rente is remitted in 
place of the indemnity of two hundred and seventy millions which is acknowledged to be 
due to it. What has become of the loan? Is it negotiated ? We need some information on 
the subject. It is not from the point of view of our 6,600,000 francs of rente that I spoke 
just now. It is from the point of view of the real resources that are going to be placed at 
the disposal of the Emperor Maximilian, and which are the pledge for us for several recoveries, 
of which it will also be necessary to spe,ak. 

In regard to these recoveries, what have we to do ? This is a very important subject. 
The government cannot refuse to give us some information on the state of the negotiation of 
this loan, so important to the finances of France, in consideration of what we are to be paid 
hereafter. I have the honor to be in communication with some persons who are very well 
posted in affairs, who would not seek to mislead me, who would be indulgent towards me, 
and who would not expose me to the disgrace of asserting, in an assembly as respectable as 
this, and consequently before the whole country, a thing that would not be true. However 
ill, therefore, I may be informed, I can say that the loan is not negotiated, or at least that it 
is very far from being negotiated for twelve millions. Is it for eight millions ? I have reason 
to think that it is not. The precise figure will be given us by the government, which is 
under the obligation of placing us right on this subject. 

In the present state of things, I believe that we have reason to fear that in the resources 
which are to be placed at the disposal of the Emperor Maximilian we will not find all the 
security on which our treaty would give us the right to count. 

Now, how is it with our rentes ? The Glynn firm announced in its prospectus that it 
would negotiate 18,600,000 francs of rentes; that it would open subscriptions in France and 
in England; that is to say, that it was commissioned to make at the same time a loan of 
twelve millions of rentes for Mexico, and a loan of 6,600,000 francs of rentes for France. 
Such was the announcement of the firm of Glynn & Company. 

In the secret committee I asked if we could know on what conditions the English com- 
pany undertook the negotiation of our 6,600,000 livres of rentes. The minister of state told 
me on that day that he had not in his possession any treaty that might have existed between 
the French treasury and the English company. He had it not in his possession, but he 



426 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

promised to make it known to us afterwards. Now I believe he ■will not Lave to make it 
known to us, for no treaty any longer exists. 

If these things are true, Ave offered to Mr. Glynn to intrust kirn with bonds at the rate of 
GO francs, which he was to negotiate with the public at 63 francs, and he has thought proper 
to decline the bargain. Yet it was a A*ery fine commission that Ave alloAved him — a commis- 
sion of three per cent., as Ave yielded to him at 60 francs Avhat he was to negotiate in public 
at 63 francs ; and still he has been umvilling to accept. 

What is the consequence, gentlemen? If these things — this is a question Avhich I address 
to the government — if these things are in the state Avhieh I have just indicated ; that is to 
say, if Mr. Glynn has refused to undertake the negotiation of our 6,600,000 livres of rentes: 
if, even with a commission of three per cent., he has been unAvilling to undertake to become 
the holder of them — well, Avhat will become of these bonds ? 

They remain in the portfolio of the treasury. That is true ; Ave haA-e in the portfolio of 
the treasury 6,600,000 livres in Mexican bonds. These bonds will be negotiated hereafter 
as the Italian bonds haA^e been negotiated. 

You have not forgotten, gentlemen, that, after the treaty of Zurich, the government of 
Turin, Avhich, perhaps, has never attached sufficient importance to that treaty, Avas to reim- 
burse us for the sum of 100 millions Avhich Ave had advanced for it to the Austrian govern- 
ment. Hoav have these 100 millions been reimbursed? By the remittance of Italian bonds. 
We have had Italian bonds remitted to us at the rate of 80 francs 35 centimes. This 
amount in bonds represented a capital of 75 millions and some fraction — the exact figure does 
not matter. 

We have negotiated these Italian bonds as Ave may be able to negotiate hereafter, I knoAv 
not Avhen, the Mexican bonds Avhich will remain in our portfolio. But at Avhat price have we 
negotiated these Italian bonds ? We have negotiated them at such a price that Ave haA-e lost 
11.800,000 francs on the 75 millions— that is, from 15 to 16 per cent. If Ave are to negotiate 
our Mexican bonds on the same conditions, you will easily understand hoAv, Avhen Ave very 
exactly set doAvn in our two budgets a certain sum of 66,900,000 francs, Ave shall have sadly 
miscalculated, and Ave shall be A'ery far from an adjustment of balances. 

What, in fact, is the condition of these Mexican bonds ? I do not noAv consider the political 
question ; I only consider the financial aspect of the case. In my opinion it is less favorable 
eA-en than that of the Italian bonds. If Ave have lost from 15 to 16 per cent, on the Italian 
bonds Ave will lose still more on the Mexican bonds, Avhen Ave shall have need of negotiating 
them in order to supply a deficit of 35 millions in the budget of 1864, and a deficit of 
13,900,000 francs in the budget of 1865. We will therefore lose much ; that is incontestable. 
I fear so much the more that Ave may lose heavily, as I cannot indulge any hopes. Yet I 
Avould gladly pray for the success of the negotiation of the Mexican bonds ; for I assure you 
that if the 66 millions could be considered as ready money, if they could be considered as 
likely to restore order in our finances, I should be perfectly satisfied, although I hold here 
the language of a member of the opposition. 

Much has been said of the financial feature of the neAV Mexican government ; our very 
honorable and A-ery eminent friend Mr. O'Quinn, the author of the report, has told us that he 
does not share the apprehensions Avhich some entertain on the financial destiny of the 
Mexican goA r ernment. 

Gentlemen, I kaA r e in my hands a document Avhich does not alloAv me to share those hopes, 
or rather which does not permit me to abandon myself or to urge my honorable colleagues to 
abandon themselves to such illusions. This document, Avhich I have in my hands, is the 
report Avhich M. de Araniuez, formerly minister of finance in Mexico before tbe presidency 
of Juarez, has made to the Emperor Maximilian in regard to the state of affairs in Mexico. 
This report has been copied for me most faithfully, and yesterday, by order of the Emperor 
Maximilian, it has been published in the Morning Post, of which a copy lias been sent to 
me, which I have compared Avith the transcript previously communicated to me, of which I 
could therefore recognize the perfect correctness. 

Noav, Avliat said the Mexican minister of finances .' He said tbat, in the actual state of 
the reA-enucs of Mexico, Avhich amounted to a very Ioav sum, 10 or 11 millions of piastres, 
tbat is, 50 or 55 millions of francs, it Avas indispensable with these revenues, in comparing 
them with the amount of the internal debt, the amount of the external debt, the amount of 
the debt due to France — and this debt he estimated only at "200 millions or 40 millions of 
piastres — it Avas indispensable to effect a loan of 750 millions. 

It is for a country tor which such resources an- recognized as necessary by a man Avho was 
its minister of finance a few years ago. and Avho now makes a Aery complete, very clear. 
very methodical report to the Mexican Emperor; it is for a country which has need of 750 
millions, that it is sought to effect a loan of 120 millions nearly, a loan represented by these 
12 millions of bonds which it is sought to negotiate in the interest of the new government. 

Such is the State of the ease ; 1 derive no Bone from it to see the speedy realization of all 
those financial resources which Mexico, according to the fancy or the reasoning of some of 
our colleagues, should very soon produce. 

I am so much the less disposed to entertain such a hope, as in the same report I have read, 
and 1 now road, that the new Emperor will require at Least two years to re-establish civil 
Order in the country, to assess the taxes, to organize its financial government, and to restore 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 427 

the alcalas or duties which have been suppressed, iu order to replace them with monopolies 
which can no longer exist in a government imbued with principles of liberty, as the estab- 
lishment of this new empire in Mexico ought to be, those monopolies which constituted the 
principal source of revenue for the Spanish government when it possessed and administered 
that country in 1820. 

Such are the observations made by the Mexican minister. Well, gentlemen, to these obser- 
vations I add mine also, such as have been suggested by the document which I have 
studied, a document which is well known to the government ; for the copy of this report of 
M. de Aranjuez was transmitted to the French government before it was made known in 
London. 

I have already said, gentlemen, that we must use the 66 millions that should proceed from 
the negotiation of the Mexican bonds ; we must negotiate those bonds, I know not when, 
nor at what price ; but first or last, at any price whatever, it can only be done with heavy 
loss. How could we be covered by what is due to us from the Emperor Maximilian ? I 
have already said it too, and I will be corrected if, in my position as a stranger to the 
management of internal affairs, I am not rigorously exact in my knowledge of things ; I 
have already said, the loan was not entirely subscribed for the Emperor Maximilian, and it 
was very doubtful whether he would succeed in getting the ]20 millions which he hoped to 
obtain from the negotiation of his 6 per cent, bonds. 

But suppose that this loan, which has not been subscribed to either in England or in 
Holland, and which has scarcely been taken anywhere else than in France, suppose that 
this loan is entirely taken ; suppose that it will be negotiated without any loss, without any 
commission prejudicial to the interests of the Emperor Maximilian's finances ; suppose that 
in consequence the Emperor Maximilian raises 120 millions. I make a very large concession 
here. Well, permit me now to see what the obligations of the Emperor Maximilian are, 
according to the terms of the treaty of Miramar. 

According to that treaty the Emperor Maximilian should immediately deposit, through 
the agency of the committee of finance, presided over by M. deGerminy, four instalments of 
our rente of 6,600,000 francs in the bureau of deposits and consignments. He should, 
likewise, deposit four instalments of the rente negotiated in France for the 12 millions ; that 
is to say, he should deposit four instalments of an annual rente of 18,600,000 francs. Now, 
if I am not mistaken, four instalments represent about 37,200,000 francs. This seems to 
me incontestable. It is necessary, therefore, that he should pay them down immediately, and 
that he should take them out of the 120 millions which he is to obtain from the very doubtful 
realization of his loan. 

Independently of the thirty-seven millions of francs which he should deposit immediately, 
according to the terms of the treaty, in the French bureau of deposits and consignments, 
he should also arrange with England, for England has an English commissioner a member of 
the Mexican committee of finance, established in Paris, and this commissioner assuredly 
watches over the interests of his country. 

What has the Emperor Maximilian done for England ? 

There existed a debt of English bonds to the amount of fifty-one millions of piastres, that 
is, two hundred and fifty millions of francs. Well, the Emperor Maximilian has consolidated 
this amount of English bonds into 3 per cent, rentes, at a less figure ; and then, in the 
quality of a sovereign entering the country as a man able to pay his debts and the debts of 
the country of which he is going to be the sovereign, he has declared that there were twenty 
coupons of these English bonds which had not been discharged for a certain number of 
years, and that consequently he established a 3 per cent, rente similar to that in consolida- 
tion of the English bonds, that he established in favor of English creditors a rente of 3 per 
cent., which would amount to 3,800,000 francs. 

He has, therefore, in regard to England, created a rente of 3 per cent., of which the two 
sections, the one a consolidation of the capital of fifty-one millions of piastres, the other a 
consolidation, reduced, it is true, but still a consolidation, of the amount of twenty coupons, 
amount in all to a rente of twelve millions and some fraction. 

What is the English commissioner going to do ? What he has done, and what he ought 
to do, most undoubtedly. He is going to demand the preliminary deposit of the interest for 
two years, as it has been demanded for the 18,600,000 francs. 

The Emperor Maximilian must, therefore, add twenty-two or twenty-four millions for two 
years' interest of this rente which he has established in favor of England. Here, then, are 
twenty-two or twenty-four millions for England that must also be added immediately by a 
deposit as instantaneous as the deposit of thirty-seven millions of French interest. 

Independently of these engagements, there is one other made with you, and upon which 
we count in our estimate of receipts for 1864, as well as for 1865. So we were told yester- 
day. I do not speak of the Emperor Maximilian's engagement to pay us 1,000 francs for 
each soldier that may be left in his territory ; I do not speak of that. The Emperor Maxi- 
milian has made an engagement, embracing several matters, to pay us twenty-five millions. 
These twenty-five millions we have to apply to the budgets of 1864 and 1 865. 

Here, then, is a sum of twenty-five millions, or, taking in the semi-annual instalment of 
12,500,000 francs for 1864, 37,500,000 francs in all, which the Emperor Maximilian must ex- 
pend in order to discharge his obligation to pay us twenty-five millions a year ; and we count 



428 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

so confidently upon this, that, having in the amount of the Mexican rente only fifty-four 
millions of which we could dispose, we dispose of sixty-six millions of this same rente, and 
we appropriate fifty-three millions of it in the budget of 1884, and thirteen millions iu the 
budget of 1865 ; Ave count with entire assurance upon that money. Here, then, are twenty- 
five millions for 1865, and 12, SOU, 000 francs for the half of this year, on which we count ; 
they are our eventual resources. Thus it is 37,500,000 francs that the Emperor Maximilian 
must expend out of the money which is to be raised for him by the loan in the condition in 
which we know that to be. (Murmurs. ) 

There is yet another engagement made by the Emperor Maximilian. While we remain 
there, he ought to relieve us immediately, dating from the first of July, from the enormous 
expense of maintaining the Mexican army. The Mexican army, if I refer to the figures that 
are given us in the budget, is for us a charge of 18,600,000 francs; for I have seen in the 
corrected estimate, and in the report of our honorable colleague, that it was for one-half 
year 9,300,000 francs. It is necessary, therefore, that, for eighteen months, the Emperor 
Maximilian should remain charged, in our place, with this expense of 18,600,000 francs, or 
else he will not pay his army. 

The sum of 18,600,000 francs a year, makes, for eighteen months, twenty-seven millions 
and some hundreds of thousands of francs which the Emperor Maximilian will have to spend. 
Please add up — and all these figures are incontestable — add up all that, iu accordance with 
these decrees, with treaties, and with agreements, the Emperor Maximilian is obliged to 
spend immediateby, before entering his empire, before being able to establish his government 
there, before being able to introduce there the necessary means for the establishment of order, 
peace, and security, and the creation of interests around him ; he has to pay one hundred 
and twenty-five millions out of the one hundred aud twenty millions which he will have 
borrowed. [Laughter on several benches.] 
M. Glais-Bizoin. Very good ; very good. [Murmurs of disapprobation.] 
M. Behkyek. Pardon me, gentlemen, for these long developements with which I fatigue 
you, [No, no. Go on. ] But I consider it only my duty as a good citizen to dispel from 
your minds the illusions that would induce you to accept as realities what in fact are only 
chimeras, and nothing but chimeras. 

Independently of all these external obligations which must be fulfilled in the interval of 
eighteen months, and the greatest part immediately, there is an internal debt. Is this new 
Emperor, who goes to restore peace, order, confidence in his states, to commence by bank- 
ruptcy as to the internal debt ? Is he not going to be obliged to acknowledge and provide 
for it ? What would be the condition of a new government that would commence by say- 
ing : " There are debts : I will not pay them" ? 

All these considerations should be weighed by you. They are true ; they are of serious 
importance; they demand to be received as reasons determining us to recognize the impossi- 
bility of hoping for an equilibrium in the budget through the means of the income which 
we presume to be derivable from the Mexican indebtedness. This seems to me established 
by the fullest evidence. The budget is very far from finding the thirty-seven millions which 
Mexico owes us for eighteen months, and the 66,600,000 francs which are allotted to us, and 
of which we dispose as available assets. We are so far from being able with any certainty 
or reason to count upon that, that Ave must acknowledge that there will be a deficit, and a 
A'ery considerable deficit, in our budget. 

Most unfortunately, there will be a deficit for other reasons also, and this is still more sad : 
for all that I haA'e said is only in relation to our finances abroad. As to position, attended 
with more or less risk, of the Archduke become Emperor, Ave have made the expenditure, we 
have balanced it ; Ave await sufficient indemnities to coA-er the balance. Will those indemni- 
ties fail us? That will be a transitory misfortune; but it is not a misfortune attributable to 
ourselves. It is the Aveakuess, the poverty, the chimerical illusions of other parties, that 
haA'e brought us to it. We will pass over this subject. But there are other illusions Avhich, 
although they do not result in figures so important, appear to me worthy to be the object of 
most serious reflections on the part of the government. These are the estimates which Ave 
make of the revenue derivable from taxes, and especially from indirect taxes, as available 
resources. As to these estimates, we are told in the report of the committee, "We need 
estimate for 1864 a deficit, a falling off, a diminution, of three millions iu the receipt of in- 
direct taxes." 

In view of this hope, of this estimate of the committee, I look at the figures of the 
returns, in the Moniteur, of the revenue from our indirect taxation during the first half of 
the year 1804, and I see that there is a falling oft' of receipts, compared with 1803. of 
0,0?:'., (Kid francs. Now, when the first half of the year presents a deficiency of receipts to 
tin' sum of 6,673,000 francs, I ask on what grounds does the committee assert that, in the 
course of the whole year, there will be a diminution of receipts only o( three millions .' 

It is a bad beginning, whereon to predict that there will he only a deficit of three millions 
during tin' whole year, when the first half alone presents a detieit of 6,673,000 francs. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 429 



CORPS LEGISLATIF. 

Session of Thursday, May 12, 1864. 
His excellency the Duke De Morny, president, in the chair. 

After the reading of the journal, in which some corrections were made, and the presenta- 
tion of various reports, the order of the day came up, being the consideration of the budget 
for 1865. M. Jules Favre claimed and obtained the floor. The opening of his speech and 
the part relating to Mexican affairs were as follows : 

M. Jules Favre. Gentlemen, when in the session of yesterday our honorable president 
advised us not to overload the discussion of the budget with irrelevant debates, it was not 
certainly and it could not have been his idea to debar us from the serious examination of 
those affairs that are involved in the regulation of finances. 

In fact, gentlemen, if it is important to know the amount of our expenses and of our receipts, 
it is not less so to know how these expenses are incurred, and if the sacrifices which they im- 
pose upon the country turn to its welfare and its prosperity internally, to its securiy, to 
its repose, to its honor, to its alliances externally. 

It is, therefore, gentlemen, useful to examine the condition in which our diplomacy has 
placed us, and I ask your permission to make this examination in your presence, throwing 
aside, as far as it will be possible for me, all incidental questions, and occupying myself only 
with those which should principally claim your attention. And if it is impossible for me, 
speaking in the name of the opposition, to intimate my approval of the domestic and internal 
policy of the government, it is no less impossible for me to show any satisfaction with its 
■external policj r , and this, gentlemen, for a reason which applies to both. In fact, we reproach 
both alike with appearing to be what they are not, with exciting without satisfying, and with 
thus creating everywhere a condition of things full of doubt, uncertainty, and danger. [In- 
terruption. ] 

In order to justify this opinion, gentlemen, I must go through with you the principal ques- 
tions to which I alluded just now ; not that I make the rash pretension to present here the 
diplomatic history of the government which directs us ; I desire to confine myself to a brief 
review of the events that have transpired and that are now transpiring since the corps legis- 
latif has met. And it is precisely, gentlemen, in examining these events that I shall find the 
justification of the opinion which I have had the honor of enunciating before the chamber. 
And in the very beginning, gentlemen, permit me to tell you that it would be a grave error 
to suppose that diplomacy should restrict itself to the surveillance of facts that are being 
accomplished, and to the consideration of the transitory interest that might arise from them. 
Assuredly, gentlemen, it cannot despise either the one or the other, but in order to be really 
strong, it is necessary that, as for internal policy, it should have a fixed principle, a reason to 
•direct it, a reason to serve as a lamp and guide on all important occasions whereon it may 
find itself engaged. Now, gentlemen, what cannot be disputed by any one that does me the 
honor of listening to me is, that in the contest now waged in Europe, and which, unfortu- 
nately, does not yet draw near its end, France, by her external action as well as by her 
internal policy, should, under pain of degenerating from her high station, represent the new 
spirit. And what must we understand by this expression ? In my mind, here is what it means 
— the ancient spirit having its source in theocracy, which is the representation of the most 
■elevated of despotism, has taken the name of divine right in order to be the more feared and 
the more submitted to by the people. This is the name which it has assumed in order to be 
able to reign without limitation, and to make all understandings be silent in its presence. 
But in opposition to this right to which I must restore a more logical name by calling it the 
imposed right, there appears the right which I name consented right, and it is this, gentle- 
men, which is the personification of the new spirit, that is, the liberty of the human soul 
which takes possession of the world, and which desires, through the power of the collective 
individualities called to govern their own affairs by themselves, to reveal itself and assume 
its proper place. 

Several Members. Good. 

M. Jules Favre. Now, it is not doubtful, and I was right in saying that upon this point 
I would have no person to contradict me among you, that France is the champion of this 
latter principle. Undoubtedly, and here again we are all of one accord, her policy ought to 
have a fixed rule. It ought also to avoid showing itself adventurous, Utopian, and especially 
propagandist. It should rely for support on that which constitutes its proper force, but should 
not seek to impose itself abroad. It should respect the principle on which it rests, and protect 
that principle on all occasions when that protection is allied with possibility and the interests 
of the nation. 

Well, gentlemen, has France been faithful to her commission in the events which have 
been unfolded before you ? Has she respected these rules of conduct 1 Has she shown herself 
prudent, reserved, and logical? Unfortunately it is impossible for me to give her this credit. 

Italy is not the only or the most serious embarrassment in which France finds herself in- 
volved; she carries a still heavier chain : it is that of Mexico, [exclamations,] and we would 



430 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

be wofully wanting in our duty if we did not seek to know the truth as to our political 
condition on this question. 

Do not fear, gentlemen, that I shall abuse your patience, which I have already, perhaps, 
taxed too much, but the details so clear, so authoritative, that have been given you by my 
illustrious colleague [M. Berryer] on the financial question, seem to me to have been left 
unanswered. [Cries of no, no.] 
A voice. Read the Moniteur ! 

M. Jules Favre. It is certain, to my eyes at least, that the Emperor Maximilian, in tak- 
ing possession of his new empire, assumes charges under the weight of which he will have 
great difficulty in establishing his government. 

But here, gentlemen, I meet with an objection that has several times been urged in this de- 
bate, and to which I cannot fail to reply. "Whenever a member rises here within these 
precincts in order to call your attention to this question, you know that he is treated as a 
disloyal citizen. 
A VOICE. Yes, and very justly. 

M. Jules Favre. And you have heard it asserted, in one of your recent sessions, that in 
the English Parliament such discussions would not be possible. [That is true, that is true ! ] 
M. Olais Bizoin. No : for no English Parliament would have ever tolerated such an 
expedition. [Murmurs of disapprobation.] 

M. Jules Favre. There may be a reason for this, gentlemen ; it is because the English 
nation is not under guardianship; [cries of disapprobation;] it is because in demanding 
peace it is not likely to expose itself to war ; it is because it can manage its affairs, and it is 
for this reason, gentlemen, that it sometimes abstains from criticising them. 

As to us, we are for the most part of the time called to control events that have been accom- 
plished. And then it would be a very singular and very humiliating condition in which we 
would be placed, were we always to approve under pain of being wanting in patriotism. 
[Murmurs of disapprobation.] 

And permit me, since the minister has touched upon English history, to remind you that 
his recollections in this respect have rather failed him ; and when I revert to the end of the 
last century and to the commencement of the present, oh ! then, gentlemen, I perceive a 
tremendous struggle in progress. France stands at the head of the new ideas. She is her- 
self engaged in terrible convulsions that might terrify Europe. Yet not the less for all that 
does she pronounce words of emancipation and of liberty ; and then the coalition of all the 
old despots is formed against her, and by their side is England found, England directed by 
a great man, by an eminent minister, but one who, in my opinion, was blinded by the con- 
tracted views of national hatred. He struggled against'us and thus dragged liis country 
into incalculable evils. 

Yes, I acknowledge, he had an inflamed public opinion on his side, and in a parliament 
like this, one day when those irritating questions were in debate, a man arose in opposition 
to the common opinion, in spite of the murmurs that would have drowned his voice, and 
although he was forced to renounce illustrious friendships, he maintained the cause of liberty 
and of France. That man was Fox, and it is impossible to say what might have been the 
result if his wise counsels bad been followed. But that which all sensible men can affirm 
is, that if England, instead of combating the French revolution, had sought to moderate 
and direct it, there would have been fifty years less of struggles, fatal struggles, battles, woe 
and blood, perhaps somewhat less of glory, but certainly more civilization and liberty. 
[Applause around the speaker.] 

You see, then, that it sometimes happens that English statesmen have courageously 
resisted the impulse of popular opinion, believing thereby that they performed their duty. 
and in fact thus performing it. As to us, what have we said? I do not wish to repeat it lure. 
The minister has had reason to tell you that these great events had entered upon a new 
phase; only, perhaps, he has forgotten those different phases. The minister has traced for 
you a brilliant picture of the splendor reserved for America, thanks to our devotedness, to 
our courage, to our civilizing spirit. It is to accomplish this gigantic work that we have 
lauded on the shores of Mexico ! 

Gentlemen, let the minister permit me to remind him that all this is but a poetic after- 
stroke; it is a grand programme that has been traced out by the victorious hand of France, 
but which the hand of her policy had not prepared. [Divers interruptions.] 

If I refer back to the origin itself of the enterprise, I find that all this grandeur is in 
singular contrast with the 2,500 men that funned the first contingent of France, and with 
the pacific declarations which she circulated among all the cabinets of Europe! 

I acknowledge it, time and events have progressed and have imposed imperious obligations 
upon us. Yet once more, I say I will not retrace the past, I will take things as they exist. 
Only, the minister will permit me to say to him: if Prince Maxamilian is traversing the 
ocean, and if, to use his magnificant language, the waves seem to be obedient to him, if the 
shores shake with joy at his approach, if lie is SOOII to be received with unanimous accla- 
mations, [murmurs,] ah! let them burst forth, but it is his cruellest enemies who prepare 
these ovations for him. [Cries of no! no!] And. as for me, I highly admire, indeed, a 
people that would place their patriotism, after their defeat, in wreathing crowns of glory for 
a foreign prince that is sent to them by a victorious enemy. [Murmurs of disapprobation. ] 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 431 

Iu fine, let us look into the reality to find out the true aspect of the question. If the 
Emperor Maximilian coirld realize all the wonders which you have heard in the eloquent 
speech of the minister of state, we also, gentlemen, in spite of the greatness of the sacri- 
fices that have been imposed upon France, we also would applaud him ; but the difference 
between the minister and ourselves consists in the confidence entertained as to the success 
of such an enterprise. 

Numerous voices. Wait a while. 

M. Jules Favre. But this is not what we have now to discuss. That the Emperor 
Maximilian, intrusted with these new destinies, may conduct his empire to the highest sum- 
mit of glory, is my sincere desire. I place no obstacle in his way ; but I ask if all this is 
not romance, and if the reality is not otherwise ; if, in reality, this great prince is no more 
than a lieutenant of France ? [Interruption. ] 

This is the only true question, and it is in this way that it affects our interests, our honor, 
and our policy. 

When the session was opened, what was the language held forth by the government? I 
take it from an official document, of which I ask your permission to quote some lines. The 
feeling was unanimous, I shall not say to blame, but at least to regret, distant enterprises. 
[Interruptions. ] 

If these enterprises were necessary, they were accepted, biit the necessity was deplored 
which required them, and an evident desire was manifested that they should be brought to 
a speedy conclusion. This conclusion was very precisely indicated for the government ; 
for here, gentlemen, is what I read in the report made by the honorable M. Larrabure : 

"At this time, the Emperor's government declares that it has entered into no engagement 
with any one, either to leave a force of French troops in Mexico, or to guarantee any loan 
whatever. It declares that there is no reason whatever to suppose that it is necessary to in- 
crease the French forces now actually serving in Mexico; and that any movements that 
may take place up to the time of their withdrawal will have for their only object to replace 
the sick or those whose term of service may have expired. According to present estimates, 
the government hopes that the end of the year 1 864 will mark the conclusion of the expedi- 
tion. ' ' 

There are things to be remarked in this paragraph : a hope that the expedition may end 
with the year ]864; a double engagement — the one that no troops will be left in Mexico and 
that no obligation has been incurred in this respect ; the second, that no support will be 
given to any loan. 

Several voices. That no guarantee will be given. 

M. Jules Favre. Now, you know what has become of this double engagement ; you 
know how we have been repaid for the expenses of the war. It is a new proceeding, and 
one which I recommend to the statesmen of our day, to make the victorious power pay the 
expenses of the war; for it is France that issues 66 millions of bonds, which become in her 
hands accommodation notes furnished with her signature. [Murmur.] 

As to the engagement not to leave any troops in Mexico, how will it be compatible with 
the declarations which I read in the official journals 1 

We have sent the Emperor Maximilian across the seas we have pointed out Mexico to 
him as a point towards which he should proceed, because he would be received there with 
unanimous acclamation ; such is the pompous language of eloquence. But now here is the 
reality of the case. 

In the treaty, which is published in the Moniteur of the 17th of April, I see that " the gov- 
ernment of his Majesty the Emperor of the French and that of his Majesty the Emperor of 
Mexico, animated by an equal desire to secure the restoration of order in Mexico and to 
consolidate the new empire, have resolved to regulate by mutual agreement the conditions of 
the sojourn of the French troops in that country." 

So we are very far from the declarations of the honorable Mr. Larrabure, as contained for 
in his report. 

Hope has vanished ; as to engagements, it has been deemed possible to set them totally 
aside. Our troops will remain in Mexico, how long ? They will remain there until the Em- 
peror Maximilian is firmly established, for that is the work undertaken by France ; and when 
she is told that the Mexican expedition is finished she is deceived ; she should know this ; 
the Mexican expedition is scarcely commenced. [Cries of disapprobation.] It is necessary 
to establish the new empire firmly, in the midst of difficulties of all kinds, of parties and fac- 
tions. Such is the work prepared for France. 

And for this, gentlemen, what are the sacrifices demanded of her ? They ask her to leave 
at the disposal of the Emperor Maximilian a corps aVarmie, of 25,000 men, and there is no 
determinate period for its recall ; circumstances must decide as to the time of its withdrawal, 
and you know how much elasticity there is in such propositions as that. It is therefore for 
an indeterminate time that we keep 25,000 men in Mexico. 

They tell us, gentlemen, that they will be paid by the Mexican government. Permit me 
to say that I consider it a deplorable condition for France to have herself paid thus. [Mur- 
murs and marks of disapprobation.] 

No, France should not sell the blood of her children in order to establish a foreign empire. 
[Eenewed mtxrmurs.] 



432 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

I find in this enterprise undertaken to Mexico detestable ideas, dynastic ideas, -which I op- 
pose with all my strength, for they are contrary to the new spirit on which the policy of France 
reposes. [Various manifestations of disorder. ] 

There is, therefore, a force of 25,000 men of which you are deprived for an indeterminate 
period ; a force of 25,000 men is placed in the pay of a foreign prinee ; it will be commanded 
by a French officer, but it will not be the less, for all that, subject to the inspirations of a 
foreign policy. Now this foreign policy will gradually diverge from you in proportion as this 
new empire of Mexico will develop itself; it will become national, and less like to yours, and 
then it may involve you in enterprises, in adventures, and in dangers that we cannot now 
calculate. [Renewed interruption ] 

Is that which I say, gentlemen, a simple supposition? The minister has spoken to us of a 
fact, in regard to which it is impossible to maintain silence; I refer to the declaration of the 
Congress of the United States. [Sensation.] 
M. Ernest Picard. That is a very serious matter! 

M. Jules Favre. That this act has no diplomatic value, I am aware ; it is not the less 
for that the manifestation of an opinion of which we must take notice. But what the min- 
ister knows as well as I do is, that this manifestation is not an isolated fact ; that it has assumed 
an official character ; that the United States have entered into regular and categorical ex- 
planations ; and I request your permission to lay before you some lines of a despatch. 
Some members. No, no. 
Other members. Yes, yes. Goon; speak 

M. Jules Favre. Here is the despatch from the minister of foreign affairs of the 
United States to Mr. Dayton, their minister resident at Paris, and which has been communi- 
cated to the French minister of foreign affairs. It is of the date of the 26th of September, 
1863, and here is what I read in it. After some expressions of politeness and regard for 
France, the American minister subjoins : 

" This reserve does not prevent the government from acknowledging and declaring that 
the real opinion in Mexico is in favor of a domestic and republican government — " (Ah ! ah! ) 
Several members. Now we have it ! 

M. Jules Favre. — "in preference to any monarchical institution whatever that might 
be imposed upon it from without." 

The expression used here may seem to you to be in bad taste ; but, as to the thing, it is 
excellent, and for my part I believe that princes are so much the more firmly established as 
they are the more national, and I would never advise any state to go out of its own limits 
to choose one. 

"Our government," adds the minister of the United States, "also acknowledges that 
this real opinion of the Mexican people is due in a great measure to the influence of the 
popular opinion in our own country, and that it continually receives a new impulse there- 
from. 

"The United States do not conceal that, in their opinion, their own safety, no less than 
the manifest and brilliant destiny to which they aspire, are intimately connected with the 
maintenance of free republican institutions throughout the whole of America. They have 
submitted this opinion to the Emperor of the French, at a proper time, and as one worthy of 
his serious attention, in order that he may determine in what manner he should conduct and 
terminate happily the war in Mexico. 

" It is not any further necessary to maintain a strict reserve on that other point ; if France, 
after mature consideration, believed it her duty to adopt in regard to Mexico a policy in 
opposition to the sentiments and the opinions of which I have spoken, this policy may sow 
the seed of jealousies which, in their development, may bring on a conflict between France, 
the United States, and the other American republics." (Oh ! oh ! ) 

That, gentlemen, is a diplomatic document; and unless you go so far as to say that these 
declarations are of no importance, and that sovereign wisdom consists in the greatest igno- 
rance and in supreme delusion, we must take these facts into careful consideration. 

Here is another despatch, under date of October 23, 1863, containing the following para- 
graphs : 

"In consideration of these facts, M. Drouyn de Lhuys intimates that a prompt acknowl- 
edgment by the United States of the projected empire would be agreeable to France, and 
would free her, sooner than could otherwise be hoped for under present circumstances, from 
her embarrassing complications with Mexico. 

"Fortunately, we have never concealed tin' fact from the French government that, in the 
opinion of the United States, the establishment of a foreign and monarchical government 
would be neither easy nor desirable. You will inform M. Drouyn de Lhuys that our opin- 
ion in this respect has not changed." 

And further on it says : " It is, however, useful that you should inform M. Drouyn de Lhuys 
that the United States regard Mexico as the theatre of a war which has not yet resulted in 
the overthrow of the government which has for a considerable time existed in that country, 
and witli which the United .States continue to maintain relations of peace and sincere friend- 
ship. Consequently the United States are not free to take into consideration the question of 
the acknowledgment of a government which, in consequence of the future eventualities of 
this war, might be called to replace the present government." 



MEXICAN AFFAIKS. 433 

You see, gentlemen, unless you close your eyes to the light, that we must recognize that 
the seeds of distrust and hostility have been sown between two countries, tbe union of which 
is so necessary to the grandeur and prosperity of both. These seeds are so much the more 
to be feared as the condition of the United States is the more threatened, as they are passing 
at the present moment through a terrible and bloody crisis, which, whatever may be the issue 
of it, will leave on the deserted theatres of strife numerous bands of adventurers who, sooner 
or later, will proceed to find work for their swords in a country to which their passion will 
impel them. [Various exclamations.] 

Now, in view of these events, has France been sufficiently prudent ? I do not wish to 
examine the course that she might have pursued, and should, perhaps, have pursued, in 
reference to the great fact of the secession. It is incontestible that, if her voice had made 
itself heard, if she had been able to manifest those secret sympathies which, I doubt not, 
exist in her heart for the triumph of human liberty and the final suppression of slavery, it 
would have been a very useful aid to the United States. 

I add that our naval power and our commerce would have profited thereby ; for, in exam- 
ining the state of our relations with the New World, here is what we find and what is known 
to every one. The New World is our principal furnisher of that indispensable staple, for 
which we are at this moment making sacrifices that are becoming more and more trouble- 
some to our monetary affairs. 

In fact, in the last session, mention was made of the Bank of France. [Renewed excla- 
tions.] 

On this point, gentlemen, I wish to say nothing but this — it is well understood that it is 
not a subject Avhich I desire to draw into discussion — you know that in the years pre- 
ceding 1859, Europe bought about five million bales — more exactly 4,872,000 bales — of 
cotton, of which three-quarters were furnished by America. At present, gentlemen, Europe 
is under the necessity not only of restricting its consumption considerably, but of looking 
for almost the whole of that raw staple in countries which do not return her remittances in 
specie ; and whilst America operated with her by means of exchange, India and Egypt 
retain her silver and gold, the former to make idols, and the latter to buiy it in her vaults. 

It is thus, gentlemen, that the deposits in the Bank of France go on continually dimin- 
ishing. 

It has been announced to you that at the present time the deposits have increased to 240 
millions. But if you choose to look at preceding years, you will see that in 1859 the mini- 
mum amount was 508 millions and the maximum 644 millions ; that, in 1860, the deposits 
varied from 514 to 551 millions ; a fact which should claim the serious attention of all 
financiers, and which should not be neglected by politicians, who are well aware that the 
great resolutions taken by prudent nations have a direct influence on their commercial rela- 
tions, and that it behooves, if it be possible, to put an end, and that at the earliest moment, 
to the war now waged in America between the northern and the southern States. 

Now, a circumstance has occurred to which, in conclusion, I desire permission to call 
your attention, and to provoke a reply from the government. 

I said that I did not wish to examine its conduct in the general management of this affair; 
but I remember that, in the month of June, 1861, an official declaration was made, in pres- 
ence of the world, by which France bound herself to preserve the strictest neutrality between 
the two belligerents. 

You know, however, that in the commencement of the year 1862 France endeavored to 
influence the cabinet of Washington so far as to make it accept an armistice. But what is 
more significant is, that quite recently public opinion has been very justly moved at the 
revelation of facts in regard to which a categorical explanation is indispensable. 

In the months of April and July, 1863, two houses received orders for the construction of 
six iron-clad vessels. Two of these vessels were of the class called rams with block-houses. 
And yet these houses asserted that these vessels thus constructed were simple trading vessels. 

I do not examine here the question as to what the intention was. It is a point not in dis- 
cussion here, and which I entirely set aside. Only these orders were given by persons whose 
names are well known throughout Europe, by Captain Bullock, of the Confederate States, and 
Mr. Slidell, who has obtained a celebrity which is yet within all recollections; and when 
these builders were told that these six vessels were destined to navigate between Shanghai 
and San Francisco, and thus to connect California and China by means of vessels armed 
with block-houses, I think that very serious doubts might naturally have arisen in the minds 
of these honorable constructors. 

But I have a right to find these doubts, especially in the minds of the watchful members of 
the government; and when, under date of June 1, application was made to the minister of 
marine in order to obtain authority to put rifled cannon on board of these innocent trading 
vessels, then it might have been perceived that there was something serious in the matter, 
and the names of Bullock and Slidell were significant enough to authorize such a conclusion 
to be drawn. 

It was drawn, for the requisite authority was granted. [Sensation and various demon- 
strations.] 

It is true that, as some rumor of the affair had reached the other side of the Atlantic, the 

H. Ex. Doc. 11 28 



434 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

minister of foreign affairs of the United States wrote to Mr. Dayton; that Mr. Dayton had 
an interview with the minister of foreign affairs of France; that the latter made some repre- 
sentations on the subject to his colleague of the marine; and that, in the mouth of October, 
the authority previously granted was withdrawn. 

But, gentlemen, certain journals still no less persist in asserting that these vessels are 
armed, that two have been launched in the port of Brest, and it is positively said will be 
allowed to sail. 

I request the government not to leave such a question as this undecided. There is in- 
volved in it, I shall not say our honor or our safety — for here I care not to use such words — 
but there is involved in it our political probity. 

The declaration of the month of June, 186J, is too explicit not to bind the government in 
the most formal manner. 

Under such circumstances, gentlemen, its language should dispel every kind of doubt. 
There is no question here of a fact susceptible of various interpretations. You see within 
what limits it is restricted; and I hope that the goverment will not permit the slightest 
shadow of uncertitude to remain here. Such a course is absolutely indispensable; for if it 
could be imagined that, departing from the course which she has formally traced out for her- 
self, France could take part for one or other of the belligerents, I leave it to your own minds 
to conceive, what the deplorable result might be of such a state of things. 

Assuredly, gentlemen, I can say with the greatest sincerity that Ave have no interest in 
augmenting our political embarrassments. I have endeavored to show you how, in my opin- 
ion, these embarrassments have been the consequence of the faults committed by diplomacy. 
It is because our policy has been equivocal, because its language has not been strong and 
precise, because it has undertaken everything without accomplishing anything, that at the 
same time it has compromised everything. [Cries of no, no.] 
Voices around the speaker. That is true. 

M. Jules Favre. It must renounce this system of feebleness ; and do you know the 
remedy for this? It must have confidence in the nation, in its virility, in its expansion. 
Those who guide the nation must cease to be its pedagogues and its masters in order to be- 
come its inspired chiefs, counselled and directed by it, [various manifestations ; ] and like the 
divinity of the fable, instead of remaining in the clouds, they must take their stand-point 
on the earth which gives them strength — that is, on the soil of liberty. [Various interrup- 
tions.] 

On this condition, I do not say — neither do I wish it — that they will be able to command 
the world and to impose laws upon it; but at least they will no longer expose themselves to 
see their words belied and their signatures protested. [Murmurs of disapprobation from 
various benches. Applause from the benches around the speaker.] 



Speech of M. Rouher, Minister of State, in reply to M. Jules Favre. 

[Extract.] 

If I examine the speech of the honorable M. Jules Favre, taking his objections in an in- 
verse order from that which he has adopted, the first point to which I come is this pretended 
violation of the rules of neutrality committed by France towards the northern States of 
America. 

Gentlemen, questions of neutrality and the extent of the rights of neutrals have at all 
times been a source of difficulty and of numerous conflicts. I do not wish here to review 
the numerous phases through which the rights of neutrals have passed in the code of inter- 
national law. But what I can say to the honor of the policy of our country is. that every- 
thing in the nature of liberal, progressive, generous ideas, introduced into the legislation 
of neutrals, has originated with the French government. ["That is true; that is true."'] 

So, at the declaration of war in America between the States of the north and the Slates 
of the south, we were not wanting to these precedents, and from the very Hist day we laid 
down the principles of neutrality that were to govern our whole conduct. 

In the declaration of the 1st of June, 186J, published in the Moniteur, an official act 
emanating from the sovereign, it is laid down in article :5 that — 

"It is forbidden to every Frenchman to take a commission from either of the two parties 
for the purpose of fitting out vessels-of-war, or to receive letters of marque in order to prey 
upon commerce, or to be concerned in any manner whatever in the equipment or armament 
ot a vessel-of-war or privateer for either of the two belligerent parties." 

In the month of .June, 1863, a requesl was made by two French constructors for per- 
mission to build two steamers, it being indicated that these vessels were destined to navigate 
in the seas of China. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 435 

The Minister of the United States, in the month of December, 1863, referred to letters 
and documents which circumstances, the character of which we have not wished to sift, had 
placed in the possession of Mr. Dayton. He maintained that these vessels were intended 
for the confederates. An investigation was immediately commenced. The constructors 
were questioned, their explanations were weighed, and the authorization, temporarily given, 
was withdrawn by the government. 

Some time afterwards doubts arose ; those steamers, which are not ready to depart, were 
indicated as destined for Sweden. New investigations were made. This destination did not 
seem sufficiently demonstrated, and under date of May ] , 1864, ten days ago, the minister 
•of marine wrote to the minister of foreign affairs: "The vessels of war to which you 
refer will not be permitted to sail from the French ports until it is shown in the most posi- 
tive manner that their destination does not affect the principles of neutrality which the 
French government desires vigorously to observe in regard to the belligerents.'" 

Such is the unequivocal course that has been pursued by the Emperor's government in 
the clearest and most precise manner. 

And now let me be permitted to invoke the talents and eloquence of the honorable M. 
Jules Favre, in order to impress the United States with principles equally precise and 
equally clear in regard to this affair of neutrality. 

At the very time that he reproaches us with not having sufficiently observed the rules laid 
down by the declaration of June 11, 1861, the French government is struggling with the 
government of the United States in order to have coal declared not contraband of war, and 
perhaps delivered to such of our vessels as proceed to Mexico. I hope that the considera- 
tions so very brilliant, presented by M. Jules Favre in favor of the government of the 
United States, will influence that government to take the representations to which I allude 
into most serious consideration. [Approbative laughter.] We must then reject this vain 
.accusation. It has absolutely no foundation whatever. The French government has not 
deviated in the slightest degree from the most loyal neutrality. ["Very good; very 
good."] 

Here I come to the considerations presented by the honorable M. Jules Favre in refer- 
ence to the secession, in reference to the impossibility of obtaining for European industry 
those supplies of cotton heretofore furnished by America, and to the consequences which 
those difficulties have produced in regard to the deposits of the Bank of France. 

Indeed, gentlemen, it requires great courage to impute to the French government any 
responsibility for such a condition of things — ["Good, good"] — and I ask myself why we 
are reproached for this lamentable, fratricidal war that is now waged in the United States, 
and in which we have sought to intervene, not as arbiters, but as conciliators. [Renewed ap- 
probation. ] 

Now, I find it my duty once more to take up the Mexican question. I am compelled to 
weigh the arguments that have been presented. 

Is it true that the treaty which has been made is a violation of previous engagements, of 
declarations and promises made by the government in your presence? Is it true that the 
threat of American intervention is ever suspended, like the sword of Damocles, over the 
future of Mexico ? 

Gentlemen, whilst the honorable M. Jules Favre spoke, whilst I listened to those ironical 
laudations by him of the pretended eloquence of the organ of the government, when 
describing with complacency the future of Mexico, its expected splendor, the pacification of 
that country, the manifestations of order and regularity that were to be developed there, I 
read patiently, without any excitement at this irony, the advices from Mexico that just 
reached me at the moment — [sensation] — and therein I found the following words : 

"The general condition of affairs in Mexico is improving every day, in proportion as the 
masses understand and appreciate better the generous views of the Emperor in their regard. 
The resistance, localized at some points, has now lost all national color ; the guerilla bands 
fly on the approach of our troops, and whenever they are surprised they are cut to pieces. 
It is becoming more and more a question of brigandage, from which the inoffensive popula- 
tion cruelly suffers, but to which an end will very readily be put by a well organized sys- 
tem of police. 

"For a month or two past, especially, it is seen that confidence is reviving. The capital 
sees thronging from every quarter citizens of all classes and of all opinions, who inter- 
mingle with each other and forget their enmities, and seek to unite upon one sentiment, 
forgetfulness of the past, faith in the future. In this condition of things, with the support 
of the Emperor's government and the aid of European capitalists, Mexico cannot fail to 
enter promptly on a career of material prosperity, by which Europe-will be the first to 
profit. ' ' 

M. Ernest Picard. The signature! 

The Minister of State. Such is the news which M. de Montholon, our minister to 
Mexico, sends to the minister of foreign affairs by the mail that has just arrived. 

That is not all. I have preserved to some extent the custom of occirpying myself with 
those commercial questions amid which I lived for eight years, and I have been desirous to 
know the commercial movement in the port of Vera Cruz. An account of it has been 



436 MEXICAN AFFAIRS 

transmitted to me by this same mail, though it was not supposed that I would have to make 
use of it so advantageously and so very soon. [Approbative laughter.] 

It appears from it that the orders brought by the mail of the Florida, which arrived yes- 
terday in the port of Saint Nazaire, amount for tissues alone to no less than one million of 
piastres. Such is the condition of that country, such is the progress of its development, 
such is the merchandise for which it sends to Europe ; such is the way in which it con- 
tradicts the statement of the lamentable condition indicated by the honorable M. Jules 
Favre, who experiences, in spite of himself, a sort of regret at seeing himself deprived of 
that patronage of Juarez, whom he had so well defended. ["Good, good." Applause.] 

M. Jules Favre. Your client is fortune. 

The Minister of State. I did not understand M. Jules Favre. 

M. Jules Favre. I said that your client was fortune. [Cries of disapprobation.] 

The Minister of State. Yes, gentlemen, fortune is the client of France. ["That is 
true."] Providence protects her and reason guides her. ["Good, good."] For that reason 
it is that fortune is faithful to us. [Enthusiastic approbation. [ 

I now come to the two fundamental objections that have been made: the treaty and 
America. 

First, the treaty. We have, it is said, made an indefinite engagement to keep our troops 
in Mexico ; we have guaranteed the loan proposed by the Emperor of Mexico, and thus we 
have violated the declarations made before the committee, the report of which was presented 
by the honorable M. Larrabure. Let us examine. 

In truth, I ask myself first by what singular distortion of language any one can have 
come to the supposition that the loan has been guaranteed by France, because France has 
accepted sixty-six millions of negotiable bonds of the loan, and is called upon to negotiate 
them, not with her signature, but with that of the Emperor of Mexico, the only guarantor 
of the payment of the interest. How can any one come to comprehend that there is any 
violation of plighted faith, when, with the utmost scrupulousness and the greatest sincerity, 
we have maintained, observed up to the very latest moment all the declarations solemnly 
made before the legislative body. The loan has been contracted for by the Emperor of 
Mexico ; it has been voluntarily subscribed for by those who judged that Mexico presented 
sufficient guarantees. And, indeed, your course is not very well calculated to assure the 
capitalists of our country who have thought proper to engage in this enterprise. [Mani- 
festations of approbation. ] 

Hurried on by an impulse of fiery opposition, at a time when every consideration would 
have dictated respect and patience, the honorable M. Jules Favre begins by attacking every- 
thing. He declares that there is an utter impossibility of raising resources in Mexico. He 
declares to the voluntary holders of the Mexican bonds that there is an impossibility for 
them of ever realizing their value. Now, gentlemen, that is not patriotic. ["Bravo, 
bravo."] And when the honorable M. Jules Favre, searching in the records of the past, in- 
voked the memory of one of England's great men, he confounded at the same time the 
object and the circumstances of the conflict to which he makes allusion. That great man 
arose in the House of Commons in order to proclaim there the great principles of humanity, 
of civilization, and of peace, and not to propose, under the slightest pretexts, declarations 
of war against all Europe. Yes, Fox at that moment performed a great duty towards 
civilization ; he wished to arrest two nations ready to come to blows ; he arose to oppose 
Pitt ; he desired to calm the ardor of the military spirit ; he did not succeed, but it is to his 
eternal honor that he made the attempt. On the contrary, the honorable M. Jules Favre 
has depreciated the credit of a new empire and paralyzed a work of civilization. Ah ! if 
you played the part of Fox here, if your part were the same as his, believe me, I would be, 
with all my heart, on your side. ["Good, good."] 

The treaty, it is said, might contain engagements at variance with the declarations which 
we have made. What does it contain ? In the last months of this year the corps d'armfc 
will be reduced to 25,000 men. The expedition is terminated, and, in fact, the letter which 
I have just read proves it. A general pacification is effected every where, and the return 
of ten thousand of our soldiers will he effected before the 1st of January, 1865. 

As to the 25,000 men, whose stay has been indicated in the treaty, what is the stipulation 
in their regard .' We declare that we will remain temporarily in Mexico, in order to protect 
our interests, the interests which occasioned the intervention. 

M. GUEROULT. Will the minister have the goodness to read the article of the treaty .' 
[Noise and confusion.] 

Several Members. Do not interrupt. 

The MINISTER of State. I have net the treaty with me. If the honorable M. Gueroult 
will please pass it to me 1 will read it to the Chamber. 

M. Gueroult. I .tin not positive, but, as far as I can remember, 1 think that the treaty 
provides that the 25,000 men shall remain in Mexico until the Emperor Maximilian is able to 

dO R illlollt Us. 

The MiMsTr.it of State. The honorable M. Gueroult is mistaken ; his memory serves 
him badly; and from my recollections I will give him the substance, it' net the precise text 
of the treaty and its provisions. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 437 

By article 1 it is indicated that the corps oVarm&e shall be reduced as soon as possible to 
25,000 men. 

By a second provision we declare that our corps aVarmee, is to remain temporarily in 
Mexico, in order to protect our interests. 

M. Ernest Picard. The interests that occasioned the intervention. [Marks of disappro- 
bation. "Do not interrupt, do not interrupt."] I merely come to the assistance of the 
minister. 

The Minister of State. I resume 

M. Ernest Picard. Give us the text. 

The Minister op State. I am going to give the honorable M. Picard the text, which 
has just been handed to me, and he will then permit me to comment upon it, and to demon- 
strate in the clearest manner the truth of my assertions. 

"Article 1. The French troops that are now in Mexico will be reduced as soon as possible 
to a corps of 25,000 men, including therein the foreign legion. 

" This corps, in order to protect our interests which occasioned the intervention, will re- 
main temporarily in Mexico under the conditions laid down in the following articles." 

So 25,000 men are to remain temporarily, the time is not fixed; no obligatory delay is 
determined upon; the appreciation of this delay belongs to France ; she is the judge of the 
motives that must cause the continuance of her troops there to protect the interests that 
occasioned this intervention. [Noisy demonstrations.] 

But this occupation cannot be indefinitely prolonged at the will of France; the Emperor 
of Mexico, who, to the great regret of the honorable M. Jules Favre, pays twenty-five mil- 
lions a year for the stay of our troops, should have the right of requesting their evacuation. 
The Emperor of Mexico has, therefore, reserved to himself the right of asking the evacuation 
of our troops, according as the organization of the Mexican army may progress. 

Article 2, in fact, adds: "The French troops will evacuate Mexico according as his 
Majesty the Emperor of Mexico may be able to organize the troops necessary to take their 
place 

M. Gueroult. But when will they be organized? In the mean time we will remain in 
Mexico. 

The Minister of State. I am going to answer the honorable M. Gueroult's difficulty. 
What says be ? we will be obliged to remain there until the Mexican army is organized. 
That is the objection. 

Well, I ask the honorable gentleman whether he knows the facts ? Has he studied them ? 
Does he not know that the Mexican army is organized, that it has a force of 25,000 men ? 
Does he not see that there is a community of interest between the Emperor of the French 
and the Emperor of Mexico to put an end to a burdensome occupation? 

Are there men, therefore, so much governed by their petty passions as that they do not 
wish to comprehend the elevated character of this agreement? Yes, undoubtedly, we may 
be called upon to remain in Mexico until the Mexican army is organized ; but that^'army now 
exists, it is organized. Did not the honorable M. Berryer declare the day before yesterday 
that within the space of eighteen months that army would cost the Mexican government an 
expenditure- of thirty-seven millions? Did he not deduct this sum from the resources of 
Mexico? The Mexican army, therefore, exists. So this provision laid down in article 3 is 
being realized every day. It is realized; the departure of the French troops has been re- 
solved upon in advance; and the day when it shall take place we will all equally hail with 
satisfaction, both in France and in Mexico. ["Good, good."] 

If some persons regard with chagrin the fact that the duration of the French troops in 
Mexico is undetermined, it is a matter of slight concern to me, because such men are revolu- 
tionists, who would like to have renewed in that unhappy country the agitations heretofore 
directed by Juarez. The word temporarily inserted in the treaty is a prudential provision to 
prevent the renewal of anarchical passions, for the outbreak of which the day appointed for 
the evacuation would be the signal. 

The treaty is, therefore, above criticism, it is sincere ; its entire spirit is in conformity with 
the purposes announced by the government in the discussion of the address. ["That is 
true, that is true."] 

As to America, we must examine that question at some length. 

It is not good thus to put between tAvo great nations like America and France a pretended 
germ of discord, a pretended threat formally enunciated against our country or against 
Mexico, when there is at bottom nothing but a moment of transitory excitement, with 
which the Congress of the United States — a transitory excitement somewhat analogous to 
that which we have seen produced at the time of the seizure of Messrs. Mason and Slidell on 
the Trent, and which did not prevent the government from effecting the restitution of those 
two prisoners in conformity with the law of nations. 

What, then, could be the afterthought of America? Would she wish to seize upon 
Mexico, and incorporate it with her States ? Has she wished that she could have done so 
before. The American army was at the city of Mexico in 1847 and 1848. She had con- 
quered the government then existing, I believe it was that of Santa Anna ; she could have 
remained mistress of the territory; she did not even try to do so. She liquidated her con- 



438 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

dition, she determined her indemnities ; she obtained, if I am not mistaken, a better settle- 
ment of the limits of Texas, the cession of New California and New Mexico, and, in virtue 
of these territorial arrangements, she withdrew peaceably without pretence of any annexa- 
tion. 

Yet the occasion was highly favorable. America was victorious; she was mistress not 
only of the capital, but of the entire country. Her army had been divided into two corps: 
one, starting from Matamoras, had seized the provinces as far as the city of Mexico ; the 
other set out from Vera Cruz, and gained possession of Puebla before reaching the capital. 

Is it solely to overturn a throne that America would design a declaration of war against 
Mexico ? But at the present moment that great country is rent by civil Avar. Who can 
foresee the moment when that struggle shall terminate? Who can foresee the moment when 
cohesion shall be restored between the two parties so violently separated one from the other ? 

A Member. Perhaps it will never be restored. 

The Minister of State. During the time that must elapse before the restoration of 
peace in the United States, can Ave not entertain a legitimate hope of seeing the new Mexican 
empire firmly established 1 When those great commotions shall haA~e been finally settled in 
America, commercial interests Avill resume their empire ; they Avill paralyze all desires for 
Avar betAveen Mexico and the United States, and Avill produce a happy state of international 
relations betAveen the tAvo countries? [Marks of approbation.] 

Assuredly, gentlemen, these temporary causes of impotence on the part of the United 
States I refer to only Avith regret. What I desire for the honor of ciA r ilization, Avhat I desire 
by reason of the sympathies which animate me towards that nation by whose, cradle France 
stood as sponsor — ["Good, good"] — is that this Avar, which has so long desolated the 
American continent, should come to as speedy a solution as possible. But on the day Avhen 
this Avar Avill haA r e ceased, then I shall be more assured and more profoundly convinced that 
a Avar is impossible betAveen Mexico and the United States of America. 

Yes, such a Avar is impossible, gentlemen; the sympathies of France for America, of 
America for France, the declarations of the government of the United States, principles, in- 
terests, eA'erything is opposed to such a consummation. 

In the Aery outset I reject the A'ieAv entertained by the honorable M. Jules Favre, to the 
effect that, upon the cessation of the Avar, it Avill not be the armies of the United States that 
may invade Mexico, but bands of adventurers, who Avill renew those expeditions heretofore 
attempted against Cuba, and which, by the Avay, haA-e succeeded so badly. So, without at 
all compromising America, a partisan warfare would arise — a Avar of guerillas, who Would 
come to trouble the Mexican empire. 

You hav 7 e not sufficiently studied the character of the American Avar, when you make such 
an assertion as that. If, in the beginning of the Avar, Avhen the, enthusiasm Avas great, Avhen 
the population had not been decimated, there had occurred a happy arrangement of the diffi- 
culties betAveen the south and north, if this Avar had been all at once arrested in its course ; 
yes, it might haA-e been possible that adventurers, no longer finding any occupation in the 
bosom of America herself, might have recklessly and boldly throAvn themselves upon the 
Mexican territory, and carried Avar with them. That might haA-e been possible, I acknowledge. 
But such adventurers are no more ; death has moAved down their ranks. Those \vno are doaa' 
fighting in both armies are unfortunate workmen, junhappy laborers, torn from their homes 
by the conscription, and compelled to tight every day under the guidance of chiefs animated 
Avith fiercest passions ! 

As to these unfortunate soldiers, Avhenever peace comes between the south and the north, 
they Avill return to their deserted Avorkshops, they will go back to their abandoned plough- 
shares, and they will not go in search of Mexican adventures. Believe me, whenever the 
proclamation of peace comes, their only thought will be to seek remuneration in some lucra- 
tive employment; for America, exhausted by long Avars, can no longer find anywhere but in 
commerce and industry the means of regeneration, which an — I desire it with all nay soul — 
to restore her to the rank of great nations. [Good! good! prolonged applause.] 

And uoav, gentlemen, by what principles is the American government actuated.- The 
honorable M. Jules Favre has thought proper to refer to certain despatches from the govern- 
ment of the United States, in which he believes that lie finds the proof of a kind of conformity 
with the declarations made by the Congress of the United States. 

Gentlemen, I have the despatches in my hands. Here is what I read in that of the 23d of 
October, ld63: 

"The United states, desiring to conform themselves to the legitimate consequences of their 
OAvn principles, can only leave the destiny of Mexico in the keeping of its own inhabitants, 
and acknowledge their sovereignty and their independence, under whatever form it pleases 
them to manifest that sovereignty and independence." 

Such is the language held by Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, and communicated to the minis- 
ter of foreign affairs. Since then spontaneous explanations have been given to us in refer- 
ence io that declaration of the Congress. The minister of foreign affairs has set down 
these explanations in a circular, addressed to all his agents, under date of May 4, 1864. I 
cannot do better than read it to yon; from it you will be able to form an idea as to tin- 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 439 

estimate to be set upon the uneasiness and the doubts manifested by the honorable M. Jules 
Favre : 

"The recent vote of the House of Representatives of Washington, on the subject of 
Mexico, has given occasion for interpretations which it may not be uninteresting to rectify. 
It has been presumed apparently that this vote might induce the United States to adopt 
towards us a new attitude of such a nature as to change the friendly relations of the two 
countries, or to complicate at least the affairs of Mexico by external embarrassments. It suf- 
fices, however, to take into account the circumstances under which this manifestation has 
been produced, in order to understand that it is very far from having such importance. It is 
undoubtedly the reflexion of that sentiment which the American press sedulously maintains 
in the United States, and of which the tendency is to have considered as an indirect attack 
upon their rights any intervention whatever, no matter how legitimate it may be, by a Eu- 
ropean power on any point of the American continent. But, in the United States, more 
even than in any other country, the legislative power is allowed suck demonstrations without 
thereby involving the government and obliging it to make those resolutions its rule of con- 
duct. The Emperor's government cotdd not, therefore, have entertained any apprehension in 
this regard, even though the incident had not been the object of any explanation on the part 
of the federal government ; but the cabinet of Washington has deemed it proper to prevent 
of its own accord any impression of the kind that might have been made by it upon us. 
Mr. Dayton has come to read to me a despatch addressed to him by the Secretary of State 
of the Union, in order to relieve the cabinet of Washington from any responsibility in this 
affair, aud to establish the point satisfactorily that a vote of the House of Representatives or 
of the Senate, or even of the two houses, although naturally recommending itself to respect- 
ful attention, yet does not at all oblige the cabinet to modify its policy or take away its 
liberty of action. 

"Mr. Seward sees no reason to adopt a different policy in the Mexican question from that 
which he has hitherto pursued; and if his dispositions should change at any time, we would 
be informed of the fact directly and at a proper time, as also of his motives for such a change. 

"I replied to Mr. Dayton, that, in our opinion, there would be no justification for such a 
change ; that our confidence in the Avisdom and enlightened views of the American cabinet 
was too great to allow us to attribute to it any idea of compromising the veritable interests 
of the United States by any imprudent acts. 

" In expressing to Mr. Dayton the satisfaction felt by the Emperor's government at the 
assurances which he had been commissioned to make to it, I added that I thought, in fact, 
that from the point of view of the United States themselves, the choice could not be doubtful 
between the establishment in Mexico of a regular and stable government and the perpetua-' 
tion of an anarchy, of which they had been the first to feel the serious inconveniences. The 
reorganization of an immense country, destined with the return of order and security to play 
an important economical part in the world, ought to be, for the United States above all, a 
real source of advantage, since it was a new market opened to them, aud of which they 
would be called, more than others, on account of their proximity, to profit. The prosperity 
of Mexico was, therefore, in unison with their best interests, and I did not certainly believe 
that the cabinet of Washington could fail to recognize that truth. 

" This reply to Mr. Dayton's communication and the fact of that communication itself 

indicate to you sufficiently, Mr. , kow it is proper to regard the circumstance to which 

I have deemed it my duty to call your attention." 

Such is the declaration made by the American government, immediately after that of the 
House of Representatives. What has become of the latter declaration itself? The Senate 
indefinitely postponed its consideration. 

And we must state, all those who have made themselves acquainted with American affairs 
understand the internal reasons that may have induced that resolution. A presidential con- 
test is, at this moment, in progress in America, aud every one, democrat and republican, is 
striving for popularity. [That is so ; that is so. ] And some think that they will attain 
their purpose by opposing the new American establishment. But, at bottom, the danger of 
a contest directed against Mexico is impossible, irreconcilable with the principles on which 
the United States rely. 

How ! Here is a country choosing by universal suffrage a form of government monarchical 
or republican, and in the name of national sovereignty, and yet the American army, it is 
supposed, would interfere in the states of Mexic, to impose — what? A different form from 
that adopted and proclaimed by the people ! 

Indeed, America would in that way violate the very essence of her government, liberty, 
and national sovereignty. She would not even have for her support that Monroe doctrine, 
so mistakenly quoted ; for, to all those who have read the theories of President Monroe, they 
evidently amount only to one thing, to this declaration: that it would be regarded with dis- 
favor if Europe established colonies in America, maintained territorial possessions there, and 
enjoyed such or such territories under title of conquest, and came, for instance, to convert 
Mexico into an Algeria placed under the sceptre of the Emperor. The Monroe doctrine is 
veiy pointedly directed against any such pretensions as these. It has established the princi- 
ple — Every one have his own; every one for himself. 



440 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Are not the Mexicans in possession of their own ? [That is it ; good ! ] Does not Mexico, 
■while exercising her sovereignty and choosing a prince for Emperor, perform an act of legiti- 
mate sovereignty? Is it a fact that there are any circumstances to constitute the Emperor of 
Mexico a mere lieutenant of the Emperor of the French ? [That is clear enough.] 

Let us, therefore, exclude those offensive and irritating expressions from our language. 
[Good!] The Emperor of Mexico is sovereign by the will of the Mexican people, and 
America will respect that will. "Why should she not respect it ? From the order, from the 
regularity, from the commercial prosperity of Mexico, America will derive more profit than 
any other nation. She it is who will most advantageously work out these industrial and 
commercial relations ; she it is who will be able to send to the rich diggings of Sonora and 
Sinaloa the superfluous portion of her population to carry thither at once both labor and 
wealth. That which we might anticipate in our considerations, if such an anticipation 
should be entertained by serious and exalted minds, is in regard to the circumstances, neces- 
sary in the future, of a deep intimacy between Mexico and the United States of America. 
Therefore, America does not threaten the Emperor of Mexico, and that sovereign can pro- 
ceed in his course ; he may continue his efforts to prepare the prosperity of his country, and 
to mark the near approach of that prosperity by selecting the day on which to separate him- 
self from the French flag in order to allow r it to return with glory to our midst. [Good !] 

This question of Mexico is now exhausted. 



Mr. Scicard to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, June 15, 1864. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31 st 
ultimo, transmitting translations of two discussions which have recently occurred 
in the corps legislatif of France, relative to Franco-Mexican affairs. 

Thanking you for this attention, I have at the same time to acknowledge pre- 
vious communications from you relating to the political condition of Mexico, 
which, with their accompanying documents, have contributed largely to my knowl- 
edge of passing events in that country. The notes, hitherto unanswered, are of 
the dates, respectively, of the 2d, 20th, 24th, and 26th February, a;:d the 1st 
and 2d March last. 

I beg to assure you of my high appreciation of the zeal and ability with which, 
from time to time, you have impressed this government as to the actual con- 
dition of the Mexican republic. 

I avail myself of the occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my dis- 
tinguished consideration. 



WILLIAM II. SEWARD. 



Senor Matias Romero, fyc, fyc., Sfc. 



No. 12. — Case of the Mexican brig Oriente. 

Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward, (with two enclosures,) June 24, 1863. 
Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda, June 30, 1863. 



Mr. Barreda to Mr. Seward. 

Newport, June 24, 1SG3. 
Sib : I have the honor to enclose a statement addressed to me by the Messrs; 

Echeverria & Co., of New York, agents of the owner of the Mexican schooner 
Oriente. with an account of the losses and damages which the latter claims. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 441 

Not knowing the antecedents of this affair, nor being in possession of docu- 
ments relating to those losses and damages, my action is now limited to sub- 
mitting to you the application of the claimant, trusting that you will give to it 
such just appreciation as it may deserve. 

I reiterate to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration and 
respect. 

F. L. BARREDA. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State of the United States, Washington, D. C. 



To his Excellency FREDERICK L. Barreda, 

In charge of Mexican affairs : 

The Mexican schooner Oriente, belonging to a citizen of and residing in Mexico, was 
seized and brought to the city of New Orleans in the month of June, 1862. The vessel was 
sent from that port to New York, where she arrived in the latter part of the same month. 

A correspondence in relation to the schooner Avas had by his excellency Mr. Romero 
with his excellency Mr. Seward. 

No libel or other proceedings in court were taken against the vessel, and, by direction of 
his excellency Mr. Seward, the schooner was discharged from custody about the middle of 
January of this year (1863) and delivered to us, the agents of the owner. 

Mr. Seward informed Mr. Romero that the claim of the owner of the vessel for the damages 
he sustained could be ascertained by appraisers designated by the court, in case of the dis- 
charge of the vessel ; but we are advised that, as the vessel was not brought into court in 
any manner, the court has no jurisdiction in the matter and will not assume any. 

We, therefore, take the liberty of praying your excellency, in behalf of the owner of the 
vessel, to present to Mr. Seward the enclosed claim for damages, and request him to order 
the same paid. 

We are your excellency's most obedient servants, 

M. ECHEVERRIA & CO., 

Agents for the ownars. 



Claim of the owner of the Mexican schooner Oriente, for damages sustained by him by reason 

of the seizure of the vessel. 

The vessel was seized June 18, 1862, and released from custody in January, 1863. 

Loss of services of the vessel for seven months, at $2,000 per month $14, 000 

Expenses of vessel and crew in New Orleans 1, 000 

Wages of captain and mate, board and passage to New York 1, 000 

Expense of sending home crew to Laguayra, there being no direct opportunity 500 

Legal expenses in New York and New Orleans 500 

Damage and deterioration of cargo 3, 000 

Damages to vessel, and expenses to place her in the same condition as when seized 2, 000 

Goods and articles missing from vessel 300 

Charges of agent in New York 1, 000 

23, 300 



M. ECHEVERRIA & CO., 

Agents for the oicncrs. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Barreda. 



Department of State, 

Washington, June 30, 1863. 

Sir: I Lave the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication 
of the 24th instant, with the accompanying memorial of Messieurs. Echeverria 
& Company, of New York, agents of the owners of the Mexican brig Oriente, 
supplemental to one heretofore forwarded to this department on the 20th No- 



442 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

veinber, 1S62, together with a statement of the items of which the alleged claim 
is made up, which will be duly adjusted when similar claims of American 
citizens against Mexico are considered. 

I avail myself of this occasion to offer to you renewed assurances of my high 
consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Federico L. Barreda, Sfc, Sfc., fyc., 

Washington. 



No. 13. — Case of the Mexican brig Brilliante. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, March 6, 1862, (with one enclosure.) 
Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, March 12, 1862, (with two enclosures.) 
Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, June 23, 1862, (with two enclosures. ) 
Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero July 14, 1862. 
Same to same, August 4,' 1862, (with one enclosure. ) 



Mr. Romero to Mr Seicard. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, March 6, 1SG2. 

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to remit to you copy of a letter ad- 
dressed by Messrs. Riera and Thebaud, merchants, of New York, to the 
Mexican consul at that port, upon the capture by United States cruisers of the 
Mexican brig Brilliante, owned by Messrs. Preciat & Gual, of Campeachy. 

I beg you, sir, to communicate to me the official statements which the gov- 
ernment of the United States may have about the circumstances which occa- 
sioned the capture of the said brig, and the situation in which the business 
now is, for the information of the parties interested, and that the legation may 
gather from those reports what may be advisable for the protection of the 
property of Mexican citizens. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
very distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Sfc., Spc., §c. 



New York, February 27, 1862. 
Dear Sm : We have the honor to enclose a confidential letter from his excellency the 
President of Mexico to the Mexican minister at Washington, relative to the claim of Messrs. 
Preciat and Gual against the government of the United states, arising oul of the capture and 
condemnation of the Mexican schooner Brilliante, with her cargo, for alleged violation of 
blockade, and also a letter from those gentlemen to the same. As you are aware, Messrs. 
Preciat and Qua! are Mexican citizens, engaged in commercial affairs at Campeachy, (Yuca- 
tan,) and were the owners of said vessel and cargo at the time of their capture. They insist 

that the seizure and condemnation in question are illegal. We are not aware whether the 
grounds of imputed illegality appeal in the proceedings of the prize court at Key West, or 
not. We beg leave to request you to place the matter in charge of the Mexican embassy at 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 443 

Washington, and to make known to us what steps it will be necessary to take in behalf of 
the claimants in order to present their case to the favorable consideration of both governments. 
AVe remain, dear sir, your obedient servants, 

EIERA & THEBAUD. 
Seflor D. Jose Maria Duran, 

Mexican Consul. 

A true copy : 

M. EOMERO. 
Washington, March 6, 1862. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, March 12, 1862. 
Sir : Having communicated to the Secretary of the Navy a translation of 
your note of the 6th instant, with a copy of the letter of Messrs. Riera and 
Thebaud accompanying it, I have just received from him a. letter upon the subject 
referred to, of which, and of its enclosure, I transmit you a copy. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Seiior Don Matias Romero, fyc., Sfc , fyc. 



Navy Department, March 11, 1862. 
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th instant and its 
enclosures, and to transmit herewith an extract from a report dated June 25, 1861, made to 
the nag-officer of the Gulf blockading squadron by Commander Melancton Smith, which con- 
tains all the information in the possession of the department in relation to the capture of the 
Mexican schooner Brilliante by the United States steamer Massachusetts. I do not know 
what has been the result of the judicial proceedings in the case, as no information on that 
subject has been received by the department. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

GIDEON WELLES. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



[Extract. ] 
United States Steamer Massachusetts, 

Off Pass d Loutre, June 25, 1861. 

Sir: I have to report that on the 23d instant I captured in Mississippi sound, with the 
boats belonging to the vessel, five schooners — four claiming to belong to a government not 
recognized by the United States, and having on board the flag adopted by the States that are 
in rebellion, and one, a Mexican vessel, from New Orleans, that has violated the blockade. 

The Mexican schooner Brilliante — cargo 600 barrels of flour, two dismounted guns, and one 
gun-carriage — had been warned off by the boarding officer of the steamer Brooklyn, and her 
register was properly indorsed. She cleared for New Orleans four days after the expiration 
of the notice given to neutral vessels to depart. 

* * # ■* * * * ■* * 

These vessels were sent forward to Key West. 

* # # ■* -^ vt- * * 4 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Flag-Officer William Mervine, 

United States Navy. 



MELANCTON SMITH, Commander. 



444 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, June 23, 1862. 

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to lay before you copy of a letter 
which I have, received from Messrs. Preciat & Glial, of Campeachy, owners, 
loading the Mexican brig Brilliante, which was captured on the 23d June of the 
year last past, in the neighborhood of New Orleans, in which they explain the 
reasons why the brig left the port four days after the period limited. From 
this letter it appears that, although, speaking absolutely, it might be said that 
the brig Brilliante had violated the blockade from the circumstances indicated 
of leaving New Orleans four days after the expiration of the time given to 
neutrals to pass freely, for which, most technically, she was condemned by 
the court at Key West, there are very important considerations in favor of 
the good faith of the owners of the vessel, which, perhaps, would determine 
the government of the United States to grant them an indemnity for the losses 
they would suffer in consequence of the capture of the vessel, and the judgment 
of the court. The parties interested estimate that seven thousand seven hun- 
dred and thirty-two dollars and twenty six cents is the amount of the loss 
suffered, as appears in the account which I also send in copy. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate to you, sir, the assurances of 
my most distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc, fyc., fyc. 



[Translation.] 

Campeachy, May 12, 1862. 

Dear Sir: By your very obliging letter, dated 30th of March last past, Ave are apprised of 
the date when you received the documents relating to the capture of our Mexican packet-boat 
Brilliante, and that on the same day you addressed a note to the Secretary of the Department 
of State in relation thereto, of which you sent me a copy, as well as of the reply had, which 
you likewise sent to the Mexican consul at New York, that he might confer with Messrs. 
Eiera and Thebaud, of that city, indicating what was suitable to be done to obtain the resto- 
ration of the vessel, or the value. We greatly appreciate your proceedings, and do not doubt, 
with your aid, to attain a good result. 

The narration of the facts which caused the capture, for which you call upon us, should be 
found judicially set forth in the report from the court at Key West, where the judgment of 
good prize, founded on the declaration of blockade, and the excess of four days over the term 
granted for neutrals to pass freely, was given. The commander of the United States steamer 
Massachusetts makes reference to the term, "exceeded by four days," in his note, dated on 
board his ship, the 25th of June, 1861. In fact, the term set for neutrals was exceeded, and 
this may be a legal support of the sentence, but not a just one; for, if attention be given to 
the antecedents, which might have happened in each case, many, as well as ourselves, would 
be absolved. Don Rafael Preciat, our partner, had gone with the vessel with the single pur- 
pose of visiting his sons, who were at the college at Spring Hill, for which lie set out on 
arrival at New Orleans, and where he was when the publication of the term limited for neu- 
trals was made; and as, by his absence, the vessel could not be despatched by the consignees, 
it was necessary to wait for him. "When he got back, the time limited, of which he knew 
nothing, had passed — no other recourse remaining to him than to hasten off from New Or- 
leans ; but before getting to sea he desired to speak one of the cruisers, and. in fact, he gave 
the order to come to anchor off the bay of Velopsi, where he could have taken refuge if he had 
had any fear, when he saw a boat coming, which he waited for in confidence, thinking he had 
accomplished his wish, but by which he was captured and taken to Key West. This is all 

thai happened. New yen will understand whether the lapse offoUI days over time iixed for 

neutrals was a sufficient foundation for the sentence. 

In OUI note <>t' hisses sent to Messrs. K'iera and Thebaud we have not sought to add more 
expenses than we really and truly have disbursed ; so much so. that the vessel, costing 08 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 445 

much more than the sum at which she was bought in, we having been the purchasers, we have 
not desired to fix a higher sum than what we have disbursed to make us good for the vessel, 
as you will inform yourself by the copy we have the honor to send herewith, leaving to your 
discretion to alter it for or against us if it should be judged proper and equitable. 
We have the honor to repeat that we are your very obedient servants, 

PRECIAT & GUAL. 
Senior Don Matias Romero, Washington. 

A true copy : 

ROMERO. 
Washington, June 23, 1832. 



Expenses incurred at Key West in the matter of the Mexican pilot-boat Brilliantc and her 
cargo, which was brought as prize into that port by an armed force of the United States of 
America in July, 1861. 

Paid into court for value of said vessel and cargo, as per appraisal $3, 820 00 

Paid to same for costs, per receipt 200 00 

Paid to defendants' counsel, per receipt 100 00 

Paid to English and Spanish consuls for protests, &c, there being no Mexican 

consul 30 71 

Paid the pilot for taking the vessel out 20 00 

Provisions used by the crew of said schooner, and officers and seamen of the United 

States who were in charge and remained on board at Key West 242 77 

Costs of clerk of court, per receipt 35 60 

Paid Messrs. W. H. Will & Co., commissions 149 95 

Wages paid crew of said schooner 246 36 

Expenses of hotel for captain and passengers 150 00 

Damage to tackle and sails, appraised by experts 300 00 

Damage to cargo, by detention at Key West, on 600 barrels of flour, per account 

sales 2,436 87 

Total 7,732 26 



PRECIAT & GUAL. 
Campeacry, August 20, 1861. 

A true copy : 

ROMERO. 
Washington, June 23, 1862. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, July 14, 1862. 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23d 
ultimo, with its enclosures, relative to the case of the Brilliante, and to inform 
you that I have called on the United States district attorney at Key West for 
a report in the case, upon receipt of which the subject will receive due con- 
sideration. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurances of my high 
consideration. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Senor Don Matias Romero, 8fc., fyc, i\c. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, August 4, 1862. 
Sir : Referring to my letter of the 14th July, in answer to your communica- 
• tion of the 23d June last, I have the honor to transmit you, herewith, a copy 



446 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

of the report made to this department by the United States district attorney at 
Key West, Florida, setting forth the facts in relation to the seizure and con- 
demnation of the Mexican schooner Brilliante, libelled July 20, 1861. 

From this report you will perceive that the case is now pending in the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, the claimant having appealed from the deci- 
sion of the district court, while the vessel and cargo have been bonded, and are 
now in his possession. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Seiior Don Matias Romero, Sfc., fyc., fyr. 



Uxited States District Attorney's Office, 

Key West, Florida, July 24, 1662. . 
Sir : Your letter of the 14th instant, requesting a brief report of the decision of the court in 
the case of the Mexican schooner Brilliante, is received. 

The vessel was libelled as prize on the 2Uth of July, 1861. The evidence of the owner of 
the vessel, and the other witnesses, showed that the vessel's papers were indorsed with notice 
of the blockade by the boarding officer from the blockading vessel at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi river. After this formal warning the vessel succeeded in getting to New Orleans by way 
of Lake Pontchartrain, where she proceeded to take in a load of flour. She was taken coming 
out. 

No point except that of the authority of the President to establish the blockade was argued 
in this court. A decree of condemnation was rendered; the claimant appealed to the supreme 
court, and bonded the vessel and cargo and took them into his possession. The appeal is 
now pending in the supreme court. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

THOMAS J. BOYNTON, 

United States Attorney. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



No. 14. 

Correspondence of Legations of the United States on Mexican affairs. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, January 23, 1 863, (with one enclosure. ) 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, March 11, 1863. 

Same to same, April 9, 1863. 

Same to same, April 24, 1863, (with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, April 24, 1863. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, April 27, 1863. 

Same to same, Mav 1, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr.' Dayton, May 8, 1863. 

Same to same, Mav 18, 1663. 

Mr. Dayton to Mi\ Seward, May 29, 1863. 

Same to same, May 29, 1663. 

Same to same, June ]], 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, June 12, 1863. 

Same to same, June 12, 1863. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. .Tunc IT, 1863, | with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, June 26, L863, 1 with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. July 2. L863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, July IT, 1663. 

Same to same, July 25, 1863. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, August 21. l-d: 1 .. 

Mr. Seward taMr. Dayton, August 31, 1863. 

Same to same, September ~. 1863. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, September 14, 1863. 

Same t i Bame, September 16, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, September 21. 1863. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 447 



Same to same, September 22, 1863, (with three enclosures.) 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, September 25, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, September 26, 1863. 

Same to same, October 5, 1863. 

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward, October 9, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton, October 10, 1863. 

Same to same, October 23, 1863. 

Same to same, October 28, 1863. 

Mr. Drouyn de l'Huys to Mr. Mercier, September 15, 1863. 

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward, August 19, 1863. 

Same to same, September 2, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike, September 5, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry, September 21, 1863. 

Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward, August 17, 1862, (with one enclosure. ) 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley, September 11, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley, September 26, 1863. 

Same to same, October 9, 1863. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Nelson, June 19, 1862. 

Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward, September 1, 1862, (with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward, September 17, 1862, (with one enclosure.) 

Mr. Thayer to Mr. Seward, January 9, 1863. 

Same to same, January 12, 1863. 

Same to same, January 27, 1863. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Setcard. 
[Extract.] 
No. 258.] Paris, January 23, 1863. 

Sir: I beg to enclose to you an extract from the Moniteur of this morning- 
I learned yesterday from our consul general at Alexandria, Mr. Thayer, that 
his highness the viceroy had put on board the French frigate La Sine, on the 
night of the 7th instant, several hundred negro soldiers, taken from Dalfour 
and Nubia, destined to join the French military expedition against Mexico. 
The Moniteur of this morning admits this to be so, and says that they are taken 
because the black race is not subject to the yellow fever, and that they are 
destined to be placed in garrison at Vera Cruz. 



# 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Sj-c, fyc, fyc. 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 



From the " Moniteur' 1 '' of Paris, January 23, 1863 
[Translation — Bulletin. ] 

In consequence of the report that the viceroy of Egypt had placed a battalion 
of Egyptians at the disposal of the Emperor, the British press has suffered 
itself to indulge in suppositions which it is proper to correct. The following is 
the fact : Experience having taught, in the case of the negro companies from 
our West India possessions sent to Vera Cruz, that the negro race was not subject, 
like the white race, to the influence of yellow fever, the Emperor has asked 
from the viceroy, not the permission to recruit soldiers, as the British govern- 
ment did during the war in the Indies, but the temporary transfer {cession) of 
a negro regiment of 1,200 men, fully organized, with its officers and non-com- 
missioned officers. The viceroy was unable, for the time being, to dispose of 
more than 450 men, who are to do garrison duty at Vera Cruz. This measure, 
adopted in a sense of humanity, cannot give rise to the least criticism. 



448 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

No. 285.] Paris, March 11, 1S63. 

Sir : I enclose you, by the present steamer, an English copy of the trans- 
lation of the speech of M. Billault, "minister sans portefeuille," on the 
French invasion of Mexico, delivered in the corps legislatif on the 7th of 
February last. This speech has doubtless been translated and published 
in England at the instance of the French government. M. Billault is, as 
you know, one of the most eloquent debaters in France, and on the floor of 
the Chambers acts, in this matter of Mexico, as the mouthpiece of the gov- 
ernment. The Moniteur, of this morning, says that a copy of this speech 
has been laid on the desk of each of the members of the British Parliament. 
Two copies have been furnished to me, one, at least, of which was, doubt- 
less, intended for my government. You will draw your own inferences from 
this course of proceeding on the part of this government. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 



Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, 8fc, Sfc, 8fc. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

No. 297.] Paris, April 9, 1S63. 

Sir : In a conference with Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, had this day, he in- 
quired particularly as to our action in reference to the issue of letters of marque. 
******** He then 

said immediately there was nothing of special interest for me there ; that they 
had no news of importance from the United States; and as to Mexico, he said 
again their purpose was to take the city ; to give some sort of order to the con- 
dition of things there, repay themselves for debts, expenses, &c, and then leave 
the country; that Ave might rest assured they were not going to charge them- 
selves with the government of Mexico. I told him that in the present distracted 
condition of that country I did not see how it was possible that France, if she 
got possession, could enforce the payment of the debts due her and expenses. 
(I suppose he meant expenses of invasion, although he did not say so.) I said 
that France would not be willing, I supposed, to seize on the private property 
of Mexican citizens for the purpose of meeting these claims, and there seemed 
to be no public revenues adequate. To this he answered that the wealth of 
Mexico was rather unused and scattered than exhausted ; that there were 
sources of wealth, mines, &c, which, properly worked, would meet all claims 
upon the country. Here I think you have a view of the probable policy of this 
government — an intimation which will serve as an index to point out the future 
route which the government of France, if successful, at present designs to follow. 
My fear would be that, estimating for herself the debts and expenses due to her, 
working for herself the mines or other sources of income, and keeping both 
sides of the account, it would require a long possession before the profits of the 
adventure would fully settle the balance. 

My long conference with Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys was a very pleasant and 
agreeable one. Our personal relations arc in all respects kind. Before leaving I 
asked for another copy of the diplomatic correspondence of France for the past 
year, telling him, at the same time that it was for Mr. Romero, the Mexican 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 449 

minister at Washington, avIio had written to me for it. He gave it to me at once, 
adding some other pamphlets abont Mexican affairs, which I told him I should 
forward to Mr. Komero. I use the despatch bag for that purpose. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Sfc. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 
No. 301.] Paris, April 24, 1863. 

Sir : In pursuance of the written request of Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, I called 
at the Foreign Office yesterday, and immediately learned tbat the French govern- 
ment made gave and serious complaint against us by reason of the late certificate, 
or, as they choose to call it, the" laissez passer" which Mr. Adams grave, as 
they allege, to Messrs. Howell and General Zirman, the Mexican agents in 
London. They assume that the cargo was arms, and that Mr. Adams knew it. 
I suggested that there Avas nothing on the face of the papers to indicate any- 
thing of the kind, and told Mr. Drouyn 'de Lhuys that, in giving the paper or 
certificate in question, I did not believe Mr. Adams had had the slightest thought 
or reference to France and her relations with Mexico, as Matamoras was not, I 
thought, blockaded by France. That he, Mr. Adams, had a difficult part to 
play in England, and, do what he would, he was sure to be found fault with 
there. I told him I much regretted that anything had occurred there to wound 
the sensibility of the government of the Emperor, and I was sure it was not 
intended. It was not so much, as it seemed to me, the fact that Mr. Adams had 
given the certificate in question that he complained of, as the terms or phraseol- 
ogy in which he had clothed it ; and, assuming that the cargo was arms for the 
Mexicans, with whom France is at war, and that Mr. Adams knew it, it was 
perhaps justly subject to a part at least of the criticism which he placed upon it. 
He went on to add, too, that Mr. Adams's desire to facilitate " neutral commerce " 
(being arms, as he said, to kill the French) was much at variance with the action 
of our government at New York and New Orleans, which forbade the shipment 
of mules, or free laborers, and even of timber for the use of the French in Mexico. 
I told him that I knew nothing of this, and that the correspondence between 
yourself and Mr. Romero, the Mexican minister at Washington, indicated a 
policy directly the reverse of this. That while the Secretary of the Treasury 
had refused to interfere, on the application of Mr. Komero, to prevent the ex- 
portation of wagons, &c, for the French, he had at once stopped the exportation 
of 37,000 stand of muskets purchased in New York for the Mexicans, and that 
the Mexican minister had, in consequence, felt himself justified in making the 
unpleasant intimation that our government had discriminated unjustly and un- 
fairly against Mexico and in favor of "France. He wished me to send him an ex- 
tract of this correspondence for the Emperor, and I have this morning sent him 
the correspondence itself, with the parts marked to which I desired particularly 
to call his attention. Before leaving this part of the subject, however, he said 
that he thought, in the first place, there had been some such liberty of export al- 
lowed ; that even General Butler had permitted this ; but that General Banks who, 
it was thought, was to be less severe than his predecessor at New Orleans, had 
been more exacting or less liberal upon these matters than even General Butler. 
That most serious complaints had come to him from the army and navy depart- 
ment here of the great inconvenience to which they had been subject by his orders 
limiting the export of such articles. I told iim that I knew of nothing further 
on this subject than appeared in the published correspondence, and that if any 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 29 



450 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

such orders were made, they must have grown, I thought, out of some existing 
want or emergency of our own ; but in this he did not agree with me. He said 
if the Avar in Mexico were unpleasant to us, we must remember that our war, too, 
was unpleasant and injurious to them : and, adverting again to Mr. Adams's cer- 
tificate, he said that they had at no time, by word or act, said or done an unkind 
thing toicards us ; that their leaning had been rather in our favor than against 
us throughout, and yet here is a certificate given by a distinguished official of the 
United States government abroad, stating that " it gives him pleasure " to dis- 
tinguish this adventure of sending a shipment of arms to their enemies as an 
honest and fair enterprise and for a creditable purpose, &c, (being, as he said, to 
kill them with !) and that he therefore" cheerfully " gave the certificate in ques- 
tion. That this language was calculated to excite the French people, and he 
should, as far as possible, keep its translation out of the French newspapers ; 
and he hoped for something kind very shortly from the government of the United 
States to relieve the painful impression it had made. 

In illustrating his views of the certificate, he said its manifest tendency was to 
encourage Mexico, and to induce the belief that if she held out the United States 
would, perhaps, in the end help her. He added : " Suppose Baron Gros (the 
present minister of France at London) had given to the owners of a ship full of 
arms going to the confederates, who are at war with us, such a paper, directed 
to the commander of the French squadron on our cost, what would our govern- 
ment have thought of it 1 " But he said that the paper was much opposed to 
the views you had yourself expressed very recently to Mr. Mercier, as to the 
purposes of our government in regard to the war of France in Mexico ; and he 
read to me part of a despatch from Mr. Mercier, dated, I think, as late as the 
third of this month, on that subject. He wished me to say again to you that 
France had no purpose in Mexico beyond asserting her just claims against her, 
obtaining payment of the debt due, with the expenses of the invasion, and vindi- 
cating, by victory, the honor of her flag. He again said, expressly, that they 
did not mean to colonize in Mexico, or to obtain Sonora or any other section 
permanently, and that all such pretences, propagated through the newspapers, 
were untrue. In return, I assured him that all your correspondence with me, 
public and private, assured me that our government had no purpose to interfere 
in any way with the war between France and Mexico. 

After this general conversation Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys said that he had, for 
greater certainty, put in writing the substance of his remarks as to the paper 
given by Mr. Adams to the Mexican agents, which he would leave with me, 
not as a formal communication, but as informal memoranda only of what he had 
said on that subject. I told him I should be happy to have the paper if I was 
permitted to translate and send it to my government. To this he assented. I 
received it without reading, and herewith send you a translation. I shall like- 
wise send another copy to Mr. Adams. The sound judgment and great discre- 
tion which have so uniformly characterized his service in London will dictate 
to him whether it calls for any action on his part. 

Before closing this despatch, I ought to add that I was informed that Mr. 
Drouyn de Lhuys has expressed himself to another person, on the subject herein- 
before referred to, in terms more decided even than to me, closing, as he did, 
with the remark, that if the United States aided or encouraged their enemies 
in Mexico, France would aid and encourage our enemies in the United States. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of Slate, tyc. 

P. S. — I will send a copy of the original of the memoranda handed to me by 
Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys by the next steamer. 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 451 



Translation of informal memoranda of Mt . Drouyn de Lhuys's remarks to 
Mr. Dayton on the 23d of April. 

The government of the Emperor has not been able to read without painful 
surprise the document emanating from the minister of the United States at Lon- 
don, to which the English press have just given a publicity perhaps unexpected. 
A deliberate feeling only of hostility towards France can have induced Mr. 
Adams to deliver to the Mexican agents, who had informed him as to their pro- 
jects, the strange certificate destined to facilitate the execution of them. If a 
doubt were possible in this respect, the terms in which is conceived the " laissez 
passer," addressed to the commandant of the federal fleet, would suffice to indi- 
cate with what disposition the representative of the United States in England 
was unfortunately inspired on this occasion. 

The government of the Emperor admits perfectly that the American cruisers 
should abstain from molesting and seizing the vessels Avhich have not violated, 
towards the United States themselves, the duties of neutrality. 

But there is no necessity for setting forth the difference which exist between 
an abstention conformable to the attitude imposed upon every belligerent to- 
wards neutrals whose conduct does not furnish it with direct motives of com- 
plaint, and the formal assurance given to a third party engaged in operations 
infected with an illegal character towards another belligerent, that they will not 
in any way disturb their operations. There is guaranteed to these parties in 
this last case a security upon which they ought not to count ; there is removed 
from them in advance certain perils which might compromise success ; fears are 
dissipated which would perhaps have stopped them. If there is not there an 
effective participation in acts condemned by the right of nations, is it not, never- 
theless, very evidently to accord to them an unusual guarantee, a quasi protection ; 
and is it not, therefore, morally to associate one's self with them 1 In giving to 
M. M. Howell and Zirman the attestation which they solicited of him, and the 
effect of which must be to assure to them, in spite of the character of their mer- 
chandise, a free passage through the American cruisers, Mr. Adams could not 
be mistaken as to the concurrence which he had lent to a transaction of contra- 
band of war, which he knew to be undertaken against us. There would then 
have been occasion for asking one's self by what inadvertence the minister of a 
friendly power had been induced thus to favor acts openly directed against France, 
if the tenor of the certificate signed by him did not state that it is intentionally, 
and because he approved of it, that Mr. Adams wished to cover them with an 
exceptional immunity. The expressions employed by M. the minister of the 
United States do not leave room for any ambiguity. It is with pleasure that 
he learns the end of the proposed operation. The sending of arms and ammuni- 
tions, which might have called for the most severe censure, the most rigorous 
repression, if they had been destined for the enemies of the federal government, 
assumes an entirely different character, and becomes legitimate as soon as it is to 
the profit of the enemies of France. 

The government of the Emperor refuses to believe that such sentiments have 
drawn their inspiration from Washington. It is Avell convinced that Mr. Adams 
has, in this matter, only expressed opinions altogether personal. 

It is easy to understand, however, that the language of the minister of the 
United States at London borrows, necessarily, from its diplomatic character, a 
particular importance, and formed as they have been, his appreciations authorize 
us to suppose that views hostile to France are held also by his government. The 
cabinet of Washington will not be astonished, then, that the government of the 
Emperor should see in the procedure of Mr. Adams an act gratuitously malevo- 
lent towards France, and by which it has a right to feel itself wounded. One 



452 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

would seek in vain a motive for excuse of the conduct of the American represen- 
tative. 

Nothing made it obligatory upon him to furnish to the Mexican agents a paper 
which was equivalent to a veritable safe-conduct, which, even had it not been a 
question of the transportation of contraband of war, would have contrasted with 
the suspicious and excessive surveillance exercised over all shipments leaving 
England for the same point, but which, in the form and with the conditions on 
which it was given, became a mark of sympathy and an altogether voluntary 
encouragement accorded to illegal manoeuvres prejudicial to a friendly power. 
The government of the Emperor cannot, then, conceal the regretable impressions 
which it has experienced. It must think that the federal government will 
itself have anticipated it, and confiding in the security of the assurances of en- 
tirely another nature which it has often received from it, it believes itself author- 
ized to expect of it an explicit disavowal of the attitude and of the language of 
its minister at London. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 336.] Department of State, 

Washington, April 24, 1SG3. 

Sir : Your despatch of April 9, ISTo. 297, has been submitted to the President. 

I do not care to speak often upon the war of France against Mexico. The 
President confidingly believes that the Emperor has no purpose of assuming, in 
the event of success, the government of that republic. Difficult as the exercise of 
self-government there has proved to be, it is, nevertheless, quite certain that the 
attempt to maintain foreign authority there would encounter insurmountable 
embarrassment. The country jDOSsesses immense, practically inexhaustible, 
resources. They invite foreign labor and capital from all foreign countries to 
become naturalized and incorporated with the resources of the country and of 
the continent, while all attempts to acquire them by force must meet with the 
most annoying and injurious hindrance and resistance. This is equally true 
of Mexico and of every portion of the American continent. It is more than a 
hundred years since any foreign state has successfully planted a new colony in 
America, or even strengthened its hold upon any one previously existing here. 
Through all the social disturbances which attend a change from the colonial state 
to independence, and the substitution of the democratic for the monarchical 
system of government, still seems to us that the Spanish-American states are 
steadily advancing towards the establishment of permanent institutions of self- 
government. It is the interest of the United States to favor this progress, and 
to commend it to the patronage of other nations. It is equally the interest of 
all other nations, if, as we confidently believe, this progress offers to mankind 
the speediest and surest means of rendering available to them the natural 
treasures of America. 

I am, sir, your obedieut servant, 

WILLIAM II. SEWARD 

William L. Dayton, Esq., 8pc., Sfc., Sfc., 



MEXICAN AFFAIES. 453 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract.] 
No. 302.] Paris, April 27, 1863. 

Sir : I send you herewith what, for the want of time, I could not get ready 
for the last steamer, to wit, a copy of the original memorandum handed to me by 
Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys in reference to the views taken by the French govern- 
ment of the certificate lately given by Mr. Adams to the Mexican agents in 
London. It is not signed, you will observe, and was given to me, as I have 
informed yon, not as a formal communication, but as mere memoranda of con- 
versation. 

I should have added in my last despatch that Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys again 
observed to me, in that conversation, that it would manifestly be bad policy in 
the United States to adopt a course of action which Avould identify the policy 
of France with that of England ; that he knows there was much exasperation of 
feeling in our country against England, bat that heretofore France had done 
nothing of which we could complain. He assumes that they have been friendly 
throughout; says they have built no Alabamas, &c. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, fyc. 

P. S. — It is reporteed to me that an additional loan of eight millions of francs 
has been effected by the confederates here. D. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Setcard. 

No. 303.] Paris, May 1, 1863. 

Sir : Your despatches from No. 320 to No. 330, both inclusive, are received 

Having received a note from Mr. Adams in reference. to his late certificate to 
Messrs. Howell and Zirman, I took occasion, at his request, to say inform- 
ally to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys that he (Mr. Adams) expressly disclaimed all hos- 
tility to the French government, and all of the unfriendly motives attributed to 
him, in the late memoranda which had been left with me. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward. 

Secretary of State, fyc. 



Mr. Seicard to Mr. Dayton. 
[Extract.] 



No. 341.] Department of State, 

Washington, May 8, 1863. 

Sir: Your despatch of the 24th of April, No. 301, has been received. It 
communicates the impressions which have been made upon the French gov- 
ernment by a paper under the signature of Mr. Adams, of the date of the 9tb 
of April last, which has appeared in the journals of London. 

Candor obliges me to commence my observations upon the subject with 



454 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

an acknowledgment of the very generous manner in which Mr. Drouyn de 
Lhuys has opened the way to a dispassionate and friendly consideration of 
the complaint which he has preferred. He has not only reassured you of the 
friendly spirit of the Emperor towards the United States, but he has also, 
with marked decision and energy, reaffirmed to you that France has no pur- 
pose in Mexico beyond asserting just claims against her, obtaining payment 
of the debt due, with the expenses of the invasion, and vindicating by vic- 
tory the honor of the French flag, and that France does not mean to colo- 
nize in Mexico, or to obtain Sonora or any other section permanently, and 
that all allegations propagated through the newspapers conflicting with these 
assurances are untrue. 

Your reply to these remarks of Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, namely, that in all 
my correspondence with you, whether public or private, I have averred that 
this government has no purpose to interfere in any way with the war be- 
tween France and Mexico, was as truthful as it was considerate and proper. 
The United States have not disclaimed, and can never under existing cir- 
cumstances disclaim, the interest they feel in the safety, welfare and pros- 
perity of Mexico, any more than they can relinquish or disown their senti- 
ments of friendship and good will towards France, which began with their 
national existence, and have been cherished with growing earnestness ever 
since. When the two nations towards which they are thus inclined are found 
engaged in such a war as Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys has described, the United 
States can only deplore the painful occurrence, and express in every way and 
everywhere their anxious desire that the conflict may be brought to a speedy 
close by a settlement consistent with the stability, prosperity and welfare of 
the parties concerned. The United States have always acted upon the same 
principle of forbearance and neutrality in regard to wars between powers with 
which our own country has maintained friendly relations, and they believe that 
this policy could not in this, more than in other cases, be departed from with 
advantage to themselves or to the interests of peace throughout the world. * * 

The French government has justly assumed that the first knowledge which 
this government had of the paper of which Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys complains 
was derived from its publication in London. It is notorious that the insurgents 
of the United States derive their munitions of war and other supplies chiefly 
through a countraband trade of merchants aud others residing or sojourning in 
Great Britain, carried on in vessels which pretend not a direct destination to 
the ports of our own country which are blockaded or held in military occupation 
by the government forces, but to neutral ports of Great Britain, Spain, and 
Mexico. Matamoras is chief among these ueutral ports, and being situated on 
the right bank of the Rio Grande, which is our national boundary, contraband 
freights of vessels ascending to or approaching Matamoras through that river 
are with much facility transferred to the insurgents of the United States, for 
whose use they are designed. 

The blockade has been until this moment our chief protection against this 
danger, although Ave are now obtaining a new security against it by recovering 
the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi river, which divides the country 
west of that river from the principal field of war. 

We understand that two persons named Zirman and Howell appeared in 
London, and presented themselves to Mr. Adams, Zirman claiming American 
citizenship by naturalization, and Howard claiming it by birth. We do not 
know that they were, or that they avowed themselves to be, agents of the 
Mexican government, as Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys seems to have supposed. Zir- 
man is now recognized here as an adventurer destitute of all pretensions to 
morality or character. We know nothing of the other's antecedents. They 
represented to Mr. Adams that they were freighting a British ship with Britif 
merchandise, not for the insurgents, but for the Mexicans, and that they foul 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. * 455 

it difficult if not impossible to effect an insurance in London, because a general 
suspicion attending the Matamoras trade exposed all vessels engaged in it to 
seizure by the cruisers who are maintaining our blockade. They therefore 
asked of Mr. Adams a private note -which would show that they are loyal Amer- 
icans, and that their venture was not contraband as against the United States, 
and which being confidentially shown to the underwriters, might remove the 
aforementioned difficulty of insurance. Mr. Adams, acting at once upon the 
suggestion without waiting for further information or prolonged reflection, wrote, 
signed, and put into their hands the paper of which Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys 
complains, with no expectation that it would in any case become public. 

The transaction being viewed in the light cast upon it by these circumstances, 
seems to me to lose something of the gravity with which it might otherwise be 
invested. It must certainly be allowed to be an act not of deliberation, but of 
inadvertence. The paper shows on its face that it had for its chief, if not its 
only object, to remove an embarrassment which two of his supposed countrymen 
had encountered in a mercantile transaction in the distant country to which Mr. 
Adams was accredited, which embarrassment resulted in part from proceedings 
in that country, and in part from the action of our own government. It seems 
at least possible that the bearing of the transaction upon the war between France 
and Mexico did not at all occur to Mr. Adams, pre-occupied as he was with its 
relations simply to Great Britain and the United States, for he confines himself 
in the paper to those relations. 

The French government, however, has adopted a different conclusion. In 
announcing it to you Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys assumes that the cargo of Zirman 
and Howell was composed, or was at least understood by Mr. Adams to consist, 
of military stores and munitions of war. I am not able, with the light now 
enjoyed, to affirm or to deny this fact. Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys derives further 
evidence of a purpose, or at least of sentiments, on the part of Mr. Adams hos- 
tile to France, from certain expressions in the paper, namely, these : "It gives 
me pleasure to distinguish one [meaning one enterprise] which has a different 
and a creditable purpose. I therefore very cheerfully give them [Howell and 
Zirman] this certificate at their request. " These expressions are grounded upon 
the statement which Mr. Adams makes, that these persons have presented him 
with evidence which is perfectly satisfactory to him that they are really bound 
to Matamoras with a cargo intended for the Mexicans. While I deem it possi- 
ble that these expressions were conceived and used without any consciousness 
on the part of Mr. Adams that they would be taken as alluding to the war ex- 
isting between France and Mexico, it must be admited, on the other hand, that 
to insist upon this point would be to stand upon a question of verbal criticism. 
The United States have no motive for assuming such a position. Striving to 
conduct their affairs frankly and cordially with all parties, and especially with 
France, it is enough for them that the construction put upon the expressions of 
Mr. Adams by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys is by no means a violent or an unnatural 
one, and therefore the French government is entitled to the explanation it has 
asked. You Avill consequently say to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, that having taken 
the President's instructions upon the subject, I am of opinion that the giving of 
the paper complained of to Zirman and Howell was in effect an unfriendly act to- 
wards France, which was not in harmony with the sentiments and policy of this 
government, and which it therefore views with disfavor and with regret, while it 
regards the proceeding on the part of Mr. Adams as having been one of inadvert- 
ence, and not of design or motive injurious to France. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

William L. Dayton, Esq., Sfc., Sfc, Sfc. 



456 * MEXICAN AFFAIES. 



Mr. Reward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 346.] Department of State, 

Washington, May IS, 1863. 
Sir : Your despatch No. 303, of the 1st instaut, has heen received. 
The department is pleased to notice that you have anticipated the instruc- 
tion, No. 341, in regard to the transaction of Mr. Adams with Messrs. Howell 
and Zirman. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
William L. Dayton, Esq., fyc, Sfc, Sfc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 34S.] Department of State, 

Washington, May 23, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch of May S ( No. 305) has been received. It is proper 
for me to correct a misapprehension into which you seem to have been led 
by some remarks of Mr. "Drouyn de Lhuys, namely, that I had suggested to 
Mr. Mercier, with a view to the action of the French government, a blockade of 
Matamoras. This is erroneous. Any suggestion of that kind that may have 
reached Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys from Mr. Mercier must have been made from 
impressions of his own, and on his own authority, although it is not improbable 
that he conceived the thought as the result of a free conversation with me, in 
which I mentioned, with some earnestness, the difficulties we sustain in seeing 
that the neutral port of Mexico is used as the entrepot for munitions of war, 
which, if we attempt to seize them, are covered by the pretence that they are 
designed for another belligerent, while, if we let them pass on that ground, 
they are received and used for our destruction. It will not be necessary for 
you to make any explanations to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys on the subject. Mr. 
Mercier will doubtlessly do that. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

William L. Dayton, Esq., fyc, Sfc, Sfc. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 
No. 309.J Paris, May 29, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch No. 341, which communicates the answer of our gov- 
ernment to the complaint made here in respect to the paper given by Mr. Adams 
to Messrs. Zirman and Howell, dated 9th April last, was duly received. I im- 
mediately called upon Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, and read to him your despatch, 
and likewise the copy of the one enclosed, sent to Mr. Ivoerner, our minister at 
Madrid, dated February 2S, last. When I had closed reading these papers, 
Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys expressed himself very kindly, saying he was much grati- 
fied by the contents ; and as respects the paper given by Mr. Adams, he added 
immediately, "Let it be forgotten." We may, therefore, consider this little 
diplomatic disturbance as a something passed and gone 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William II. Seward, 

Sccrc'ary of State. SfC. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 457 

Mr. Dat/ton to Mr. Seward. 

[Extracts.] 
No. 311.] Paris, May 29, 1863. 

Sir : I wrote you some time since that I had unofficially, at the request of 
Messrs. Aspinwall & Forbes, asked Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys if there would be 
any objection to the quotation of our stocks on the French Bourse. I have not 
yet had any definite answer, though Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys said they (the min- 
isters) had taken up the subject in council, and his intimation was that they 
were rather opposed to it. The granting of this right was, as he said, a mere 
arbitraryact, and ive had not been very complying in sundry small matters 
towards them, viz., granting the right to export to Mexico ; and Mr. Cor win, he 
added, has refused to take charge of the legation of France, in Mexico, when 
their minister was about to leave ; which was, he said, a common act of inter- 
national courtesy. I told him that if this privilege (quoting our stocks on their 
Bourse) should be denied, I hoped it would be put on no such ground. That it 
would surprise us very much to learn that France thought we had not been 
complaisant and accommodating towards them. That, in respect to exports for 
Mexico, I knew no more than I had previously said to him ; and, as respects 
the action of Mr. Corwin, I knew nothing of it ; but if he had declined to take 
charge of the French legation at Mexico, I had no doubt he had done so fearing 
that, in the existing state of things, it might tend to some unpleasant complications ; 
and that I, acting under the same impulse, had, on a like application, refused, 
at first, to take charge of the Mexican legation here, and that that legation in 
Paris had, consequently, been left in the hands of the minister from Peru. This 
seemed to strike him, and he asked if he could mention it. I told him he could; 
but I must inform him, at the same time, that, after advising with others, and 
satisfying myself that it was a mere act of international courtesy, involving no 
consequence that a belligerent could complain of, I would have been willing to 
take charge of that legation, and so informed its minister ; but that, under all 
the circumstances, he then thought it would be better to leave its affairs in the 
hands of the representatives of another government. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 



[Extract.] 

No. 314.] Paris, June 11, 1863. 

g IR .##****■## 

The Emperor and court have left Paris for Fontainebleau. The unexpected 
news of the taking of Puebla by the French has caused great joy and grat- 
ulation, especially among the officials of the government. Illuminations oc- 
curred last night, and the cannon of the Hotel des Invalides were fired in honor 
of the event. The news was altogether unexpected. Even the French press 
had begun to admit the disastrous condition of things in Mexico, and the gov- 
ernment, a few days since, sent off large re-enforcements. 

******** 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, fyc. 



458 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 357. | Department of State, 

Washington, June 12, 1863. 

Sir : Your confidential despatch of May 29 (No. 311) has been received, and 
I have made its contents known to the Secretary of the Navy. 

I have experienced the same surprise which you have confessed in learning 
that our recent proceedings in relation to France, in Mexico, have been regarded 
as illiberal by the imperial government. Mr. Corwin, in a despatch of the 11th 
of March, referred to complaints made by the government of Mexico to the effect 
that we allowed the French government to obtain supplies here, while we denied 
similar favors to the government of Mexico. 

In the same paper Mr. Corwin informed me that, on the 9th February, he 
had been solicited by the retiring minister from Prussia to assume the protection 
of all French, Spanish, Prussian, and Belgian subjects in Mexico, and that he 
had declined to assume this charge without instructions from his own govern- 
ment. Mr. Corwin promptly set forth the circumstances of the case, and asked 
the President's instructions thereupon. Such instructions were duly given on 
the 18th of April last. 

I give you, by way of extract, such portions of Mr. Corwin's despatch as 
bears on the subject, together with a copy of a note relating thereto, which was 
addressed to him by the minister for foreign relations of Mexico. I add a copy 
of my reply to Mr. Corwin's despatch. You are at liberty to read these papers 
to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, if it should seem to you, as it does to me, that they 
are calculated to show that, in respect to both of the topics mentioned by Mr. 
Drouyn de Lhuys, this government has acted with a scrupulous regard to its 
friendly relations with them, and its neutrality in the Avar which unhappily 
exists between that power and Mexico. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

William L. Dayton, Esq., fye. §c, 8pc. 



Mr. Scicard to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 3oS.] Department of State, 

Washington, June 12, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch of May 29 (No. 309) has been received. It gives me 
much pleasure to learn that the explanations made by me in relation to the let- 
ter written by Mr. Adams to the admirals on the blockade service were satis- 
factory. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



William L. Dayton, Esq. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

No. 316.] Paris, June 17, 1S63. 

SlR: I have the honor to enclose herewith a printed copy of the letter ad- 
dressed by the Emperor to General Forey upon receipt of the news of the cap- 
ture of Puebla. 

I am, sir, your obedient Bervant, 

WILLIAM L DAYTON. 
Hon. William II. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 8fC., 8fC., \<-. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 459 

The Emperor to General Forey. 

Palace of Fontainebleau, June 12. 

General : The news of the capture of Puebla reached me the day before yes- 
terday, via New York. This event has filled us with joy. 

I am aware how much foresight and energy have been required of the chiefs 
and the soldiers to attain that importaint result. Testify in my name to the 
army my entire, satisfaction ; tell it how highly I appreciate its perseverance 
and its courage in so distant an expedition, in which it had to struggle against 
the climate, against the difficulties of the country, aud against an enemy 
so much the more obstinate that it was deceived as to my intentions. I 
I bitterly deplore the probable loss of so many brave men, but I have the con- 
solatory feeling that their death has not been useless, either to the interests or 
honor of France or to civilization. Our object, you well know, is not to impose 
a government on the Mexicans against their will, or to make our successes 
contribute to the triumph of any party whatever. I desire that Mexico should 
revive to a new life, and that, being soon regenerated by a government founded 
on the national will, on principles of order and of progress, and in respect for 
the law of nations, it shall admit by friendly relations that it is indebted to France 
for its repose and its prosperity. 

I wait for the official reports to give to the army and to its chief their well- 
merited rewards ; but at present, general, accept my warm and sincere congrat- 
ulations. 

NAPOLEON. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 



[Extracts. ] 

No. 321.] Paris, June 26, 1863. 

Sir : I herewith enclose you the translation of a communication in La 
France, and a copy of the paper itself, this journal having, it is supposed 
by the diplomatic corps, a certain indirect connexion with the government. 
As the substance of this communication was in conformity with information 
reported to me from other sources, I felt justified, yesterday, in asking Mr. 
Drouyn de Lhuys, distinctly, if any change in the policy of this government 
towards us was contemplated ; whether anything was in agitation. He 
said, first, that he knew of nothing ; but he added, that he had not seen the 
Emperor for some days, and he could not, therefore, answer for what he had 
said or done. He informed me, however, that he was satisfied that the Em- 
peror had seen Mr. Slidell here, and he believed he had seen Messrs. Lindsay 
and Roebuck at Fontainebleau ; but of the latter fact he did not speak 
with certainty. I have, however, no doubt of it, nor have I any doubt that 
their mission to Fontainebleau was to get directly from the Emperor the 
expression of his views, with a view to its influence iu the British Parlia- 
ment. I have heard it said that the conference with Mr. Slidell was mainly 
in reference to the policy of the confederate government in regard to the 
French invasion of Mexico, and its probable conduct towards them if they 
should wish to make the south a basis of operations against that country ; 
upon all which Mr. Slidell, of course, gave, it is said, most satisfactory 
assurances. 



460 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

This Mexican question lias become a most prominent one in the policy of 
the Emperor, and the more his invasion of that country is complained of, 
the more anxious does he seem as to its success. 

Please let me hear from you on this subject. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, 8fc. 



[Translation of extract from the journal La France.] 

We understand that Mr. Slidell, envoy of the Confederate States, was received on 
Thursday last by the Emperor, during" the short stay that his Majesty made at Paris. 

We have reason to believe that the visit of Mr. Slidell was connected with the idea of 
recognizing the Confederate States of the south, and of thus giving new force to the peace 
party, which is increasing every day in the States of the north. 

The sympathies of the south for France have just been manifested in a striking manner. 
Richmond has been illuminated upon the occasion of the capture of Paebla, while this 
great feat of arms was received at the north with an unilissembled feeling of regret. 

We are informed, also, that Messrs. Roebuck and Lindsay, members of the British Par- 
liament, have had the honor of being received by his Majesty the Emperor. 

It is known that these honorable deputies have presented a motion in Parliament, which 
ought to be discussed next week, and which has for its object the recognition of the southern 
States. 

The cause of the confederates gains new sympathies every day, and their heroic resistance 
on the one side, on the other the impotence of the armies of the north, prove that there is in 
them a people strongly organized, worthy, in fine, to be admitted among the independent 
states. 

We are assured that Spain, in particular, will show herself disposed to recognize the south 
upon the condition, easy to be arranged, that the new confederation would recognize, in its 
turn, the secular rights of the Spanish government over the island of Cuba, and would in- 
terdict itself from all aggression against this island. 

A. REXAULD. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

No. 323.] Paris, July 2, 1S63. 

Sir: I have communicated to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys to-day the substance 
of your despatch No. 357, in reference to Mexico, and the refusal of Mr. 
Corwin to take charge of the business of the French legation. He did not 
seem to consider the reasons assigned by Mr. Corwin to be very good ones. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



WM. L. DAYTON. 



Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, $$c, fyc, §-c. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 374.] Department of State, 

Washington, July 17, 1863. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your despatch of the 
2d of July, No. 323, in which you have related a conversation which you had 
just before held with Mr. Drouyn do Lhuys upon several subjects affecting 
our relations with France. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 461 

Your proceeding in making the explanations concerning the action of Mr. 

Corwin in regard to the protection of French subjects in Mexico is approved, 

******** 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
William L. Dayton, Esq. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 378. J Department of State, 

Washington, July 25, 1863. 

Sir : I enclose a copy of a despatch from Mr. Burton, United States minister 
at Bogota, and of the correspondence to which it refers, relative to a • supposed 
design of the French upon the independence of Ecuador. These papers may 
be considered sufficent to warrant an inquiry of M. Drouyn de 1'Huys upon 
the subject, and a request for such an explanation as the answer to that inquiry 
may call for. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



William L. Dayton, Esq. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 
[Extract.] 
No. 336.] Paris, August 21, 1863. 

Sir : Your despatch No. 378 has been duly received, and I have called 
Mr. Drouyn de l'Huys's attention to the subject therein referred to. He 
assures me that France has no purpose or design upon the independence of the 
republic of Ecuador; that should any change in its territory take place, or 
should it be absorbed in another government, as in the republic of Colombia, 
this would not, in the language of Baron Gowry du Roslan, their minister, pass 
unobserved by the government of France, but its observation of such events 
would apply only to such change of ministers or agents as the absorption of 
two governments into one might render necessary. If they had any claims 
against the country or territory so absorbed, they would reserve the right to 
press them, of course. But he said he recollected nothing of a special character 
in the despatches of Baron Go wry du Roslan on these subjects ; he would, 
however, examine them further. 

It is not improbable or unnatural that, in view of the course of France in 
Mexico, the republics of Central America may have become alarmed for their 
future. They look, therefore, with great suspicion and distrust upon the lan- 
guage of all French officials, which seems to imply a purpose upon the part of 
the Emperor to interfere further. 

In this connexion I should add, that Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys took occasion again 
to say that France had no purpose in Mexico other than heretofore stated ; that 
she did not mean to appropriate permanently any part of that country, and that 
she should leave it as soon as her griefs were satisfied, and she could do so with 
honor. In the abandon of a conversation somewhat familiar I took occasion 
to say that in quitting Mexico she might leave a puppet behind her. He said 
no ; the strings would be too long to work. He added they had had enough of 
colonial experience in Algeria ; that the strength of France was in her compact 



462 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

body and well-defined boundary. In tbat condition she bad her resources 
always at command. There is much force in the suggestion, as applied to this 
government, which is so empbatically a military power. 

You will put upon this conversation as to Mexico your own construction, and 
draw your own inferences. It seemed to me, however, that Mr. Drouyn de 
l'Huys was disposed to avail himself of the opportunity to relieve, as far as pos- 
sible, the suspicion and distrust which our government might, from late events, 
naturally entertain of the purposes of France in that country. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 390.] Department of State, 

Washington, August 31, 1S63. 

Sir : I have received your three despatches, namely, No. 329, under date of 
July 30 ; No. 332, of August 4, and No. 333, of August 5. 

Under the uniform aspect of our domestic affairs, the matters presented by 
these papers may safely pass unnoticed. 

You will perceive tbat the course of events in Mexico is giving rise to much 
speculation, as well in this country as in Europe, and this speculation takes a 
direction which may well deserve the consideration of the Emperor's government, 
for it indicates a disposition in some quarters to produce alienation between this 
country and France. This government has said nothing upon the subject, ex- 
cept what is contained in a previous communication made by me to yourself, 
and it lends no materials or encouragement to the debate to which I have 
referred. 

I have told you in a previous despatch that the interests of the United States 
in Texas are not overlooked. I have now to add that preparations have been 
made, which, as I trust, will be effectual in establishing the national authority 
in that State. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

William L. Dayton, Esq. 



Mr. Seioard to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 392.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 7, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch of August 21 (No. 336) has been received. The ex- 
planations of Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, in regard to the views of the Emperor's 
government concerning the Central American states, are unexceptionable ; and 
I shall take pleasure in making them known to the parties in whose names the 
inquiry was instituted. 

I have read with much interest the statement you have given me of the remarks 
which Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys made informally to you concerning the position of 
the imperial government in Mexico. If we were now authorized to regard them 
as guaranteed by the Emperor, it would go far to relieve a solicitude, not only 
here, but in Europe, which I cannot but believe is becoming as inconvenient to 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 463 

France as it is to the United States. Before this despatch will be received you 
will probably have ascertained, in compliance with a previous instruction of mine, 
whether we are authorized to understand Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys as speaking 
by authority in the explanations he has thus made. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
William L. Dayton, Esq. 



Air. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 



No. 345.J Paris, September 14, 1863. 

gift .#######* 

In the course of conversation reference was made to the almost universal 
report that our government only awaits the termination of our domestic troubles 
to drive the French out of Mexico. This idea is carefully nursed and circulated 
by the friends of secession here, and is doing us injury with the government. 
The French naturally conclude that if they are to have trouble with us, it would 
be safest to choose their own time. M. Drouyn de Lhuys referred to these 
matters, and said the Emperor had recently asked him if it were true, as the 
public journals alleged, that the United States had made a formal protest against 
the action of France in Mexico, and he had told him that no such protest had 
been made. I told him that, so far as I was concerned, I had received no orders 
to make such formal protest ; that, relying on the constant assurances of France 
as to its purposes in Mexico, and its determination to leave the people free as to 
their form of government, and not to hold or colonize any portion of their terri- 
tories, Tny government had indicated to me no purpose to interfere in the quarrel ; 
at the same time we had not at all concealed, as he well knew, our earnest 
solicitude for the well-being of that country, and an especial sensitiveness as to 
any forcible interference in the form of its government. He said that these 
were the same general views held by you to M. Mercier, and reported by him to 
this government. I told him that France must well understand that Ave did not 
want war with her ; to which he answered that she did not certainly wish war 
with us. 

When I referred to the rumored cession of Texas and part of Louisiana to 
the Emperor, he, in denying the fact, said these rumors were diabolical. He 
added that France wanted no territory there. 

I enclose you a slip cut from Galignani, containing the substance of what is, 
I presume, a semi-official exposition of the government as to its action in respect 
to the rebel ship Florida at Brest. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 



No. 347.] Paris, September 16, 1S63. 

Sir : I did not receive the communication for Mr. Mercier which Mr. Drouyn 
de Lhuys promised me until last night. It came then in an open envelope, with 
a note requesting me, after reading it, to seal it and send it by my next courier, 
(meaning thereby the next despatch bag.) Having sealed it according to request, 
I herewith send it in an envelope to you, begging that you will have it promptly 



464 MEXICAN AFFAIES. 

delivered to Mr. Merrier. The despatch commences with a remark compliment- 
ary to myself, and then goes on to state that I had inquired of him as to the 
truth of certain rumors aiioat, to wit, that the Emperor had decided to recognize 
the south, and had even already signed a treaty by which the south agreed to 
cede to France, for herself or to he reconveyed to Mexico, Texas and part of 
Louisiana, and that Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, at the same time, asked me if I had 
not heard other rumors calculated to disturb the good relations existing between 
our two countries — as that the United States had made its protest against the 
action of the French government in Mexico; had sent its fleet to Vera Cruz; 
and made a treaty, offensive and defensive, with Russia. He goes on to say 
that these suggestions were made less with a view to inquiring as to their truth 
than for the purpose of fortifying me against a belief in the rumors I had first 
referred to, the truth of which rumors he expressly denied. He then tells Mr. 
Merrier that I said I had no knowledge of and did not believe in the report 
that our navy was before Vera Cruz, or that we had made a treaty, offensive and 
defensive, with Russia, and that if you had instructed me to make a formal pro- 
test against their proceedings in Mexico I should have done so, which I had 
not ; although, under the influence of your general correspondence on this sub- 
ject, I had made him aware of the painful impression caused in my country by 
European intervention in Mexico, and our anxious solicitude as to any interfer- 
ence with the form of government there. He then tells Mr. Merrier that he had 
attached little importance to the rumors he had referred to, which probably 
originated in the same source as those to which I had referred. He then says to 
Mr. Merrier, "I repeated to him (Mr. Dayton) that which I had already often 
said to him, that Ave were not seeking, either for ourselves or others, any acqui- 
sition in America. I added (says he) that I hoped the good sense of the people 
of the United States would do justice to the exaggerations and false suppositions 
by the aid of which it was sought to mislead and embitter opinion, and that I 
counted upon his concurrence to try and make prevail a more just appreciation 
of our intentions and of the necessities which our policy obeyed." 

He then directs Mr. Merrier to communicate this conversation to you, and to 
use the text thereof to correct false judgments and unjustifiable imputations 
about him. 

I should add that as this despatch is, in part, in reference to the intentions of 
France in Mexico, in which you and the country are just now so much inter- 
ested, I have thought it best to avoid mistakes by sending you the above, the 
last twenty lines of which are little less than a translation of that part of Mr. 
Drouyn de Lhuys's despatch. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant. 

WM. L. DAYTON. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Spc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 400.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 21, 1S63. 
Sir : The French forces are understood to hold in subjection to the new pro- 
visional government established in Mexico three of the states, while all the 
other constituent members of the republic of Mexico still remain under its au- 
thority. There are already indications of designs, in those states, to seek aid 
in the United States, with the consent of this government if attainable, and 
without it if it shall be refused; and for this purpose inducements are held out, 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 465 

well calculated to excite sympathies in a border population. The United States 
government has hitherto practiced strict neutrality between the French and Mex- 
ico, and all the more cheerfully, because it has relied on the assurances given by 
the French government that it did not intend permanent occupation of that 
country, or any violence to the sovereignty of its people. The proceedings of 
the French in Mexico are regarded by many in that country, and in this, as at 
variance with those assurances. Owing to this circumstance, it becomes very 
difficult for this government to enforce a rigid observance of its neutrality laws. 
The President thinks it desirable that you should seek an opportunity to mention 
these facts to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, and to suggest to him that the interests 
of the United States, and, as it seems to us, the interests of France herself, re- 
quire that a solution of the present complications in Mexico be made, as early 
as may be convenient, upon the basis of the unity and independence of Mexico. 
I cannot be misinterpreting the sentiments of the United States in saying that 
they do not desire an annexation of Mexico, or any part of it, nor do they de- 
sire any special interest, control, or influence there, but they are deeply inter- 
ested in the re-establishment of unity, peace, and order in the neighboring 
republic, and exceedingly desirous that there may not arise out of the war in 
Mexico any cause of alienation between them and France. Insomuch as these sen- 
timents are by no means ungenerous, the President unhesitatingly believes that 
they are the sentiments of the Emperor himself in regard to Mexico. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWAKD. 
William L. Dayton, Esq., Sfc., fyc., Sfc. 



Mr. Setcard to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 401.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 22, 1863. 

Sir : I enclose, for your information, a translation of a note of the 20th of 
July last, which has been addressed to me by Mr. J. M. Arroyo, who calls him- 
self under-secretary of state and foreign affairs of the Mexican empire, setting 
forth recent proceedings, with a view to the organization of the new government 
at Mexico; also a copy of a memorandum which has been left with me by a 
person calling himself General Cortes, alleged to have been formerly governor 
of the Mexican state of Sonora. No reply has been, or probably will be, made 
to either of these papers. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Wm. L. Dayton, Esq. 



Mr. Arrogo to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Palace of the Regency of the Empire of Mexico, 

July 20, 1863. 
The undersigned, under-secretary of state and of foreign affairs of the Mex- 
ican empire, has the honor to address the present communication to his excel- 
lency the Secretary of State and of Foreign Affairs of the United States of 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 30 



466 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

America, to the end that he may he pleased to place within the knowledge of his 
government the recent important events which have finally resulted in the or- 
ganization of an appropriate, strong, and durable government, with a view that 
the nation might he constituted. 

This capital having been occupied on the 10th ultimo by the allied Franco- 
Mexican army, the first care of the general-in-chief was to issue a decree con- 
vening a superior gubernative junto of thirty-five members, composed of the 
most distinguished notabilities ; and, moreover, another of two hundred and fifteen 
notables, in order that, united to the former, they might form an assembly of two 
hundred and fifty persons selected from all classes of society, and from all the 
departments, Avhich, in conformity to public law and to the traditional usages of 
the country, should express the wish of the nation as to the form of government 
that would best suit it. 

The gubernative junto having met, decreed the establishment of a provisional 
executive power composed of three members, appointing the most excellent the 
generals of divisions, Don Juan N. Almonte and Don Mariano Salas, and the 
most illustrious the archbishop of Mexico, Don Pelagio Antonio de Labastida, 
at present absent in Europe, and to act as his substitute the most illustrious 
Don Juan B. Ormaechea, bishop elect of Tulancingo, who, in such character, 
immediately took up the reins of government. 

The assembly of the notables having convened in conformity to the decree of 
the thirteenth of June last, was engaged in causing to be made the important 
declaration in regard to the form of government, with a view to its permanent 
stability and the future happiness of the nation. The final result of their labors 
has been the solemn decree, a copy of which the undersigned has the satisfac- 
tion to enclose to his excellency, in which appears the following declaration : 

1st. The Mexican nation adopts, as its form of government, a limited heredi- 
tary monarchy, with a Catholic prince. 

2d. The sovereign shall take the title of Emperor of Mexico. 

3d. The imperial crown of Mexico is offered to his imperial and royal high- 
ness the Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, for himself and 
his descendants. 

4th. If, under circumstances which cannot be foreseen, the Archduke of Austria, 
Ferdinand Maximilian, should not take possession of the throne which is offered 
to him, the Mexican nation relies on the good will of his Majesty Napoleon III, 
Emperor of the French, to indicate for it another Catholic prince. 

This solemn and explicit declaration was received by all classes of society 
with gratification, and even Avith enthusiasm, manifested in such a way that 
the undersigned does not fear to anticipate its complete realization; and so much 
the more so, since he receives every day numerous manifestations of accession, 
notice of which his excellency will see in the official journal of the empire, which 
is annexed. 

Consequently the undersigned relies on the moral co-operation of the govern- 
ments which are friendly to Mexico, among which he has the satisfaction of 
enumerating that of the United States of America, which has given so many 
proofs of its interest in the happiness of Mexico. 

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to offer to his excellency 
the Secretary of State of the United States of America the assurances of his 
distinguished consideration. 

J. M. ARROYO. 

Hiss Excellency the Secretary of State and Foreign Affairs 

ot the United States of America. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 467 

Mr. Arroyo to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

secretaryship of state and of the office of foreign relations. 

Palace of the Supreme Executive Power, 

Mexico, July 11, 1863. 

The provisional supreme executive power has been pleased to address me the 
following decree : 

" The provisional supreme executive power of the nation to the inhabitants 
thereof: Know ye that the Assembly of Notables has thought fit to decree 
as follows : 

" ' The Assembly of Notables, in virtue of the decree of the 16th ultimo, that 
it should make known the form of government which best suited the nation, in 
use of the full right which the nation has to constitute itself, and as its organ 
and interpreter, declares, with absolute liberty and independence, as follows : 

" ' 1. The Mexican nation adopts as its form of government a limited hered- 
itary monarchy, with a Catholic prince. 

" ' 2. The sovereign shall take the title of Emperor of Mexico. 

" ' 3. The imperial crown of Mexico is offered to his imperial and royal 
highness the Prince Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, for himself 
and his descendants. 

" ' 4. If, under circumstances which cannot be foreseen, the Archduke of 
Austria, Ferdinand Maximilian, should not take possession of the throne which 
is offered to him, the Mexican nation relies on the good will of his Majesty 
Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to indicate for it another Catholic prince. 

" ' Given in the Hall of Sessions of the Assembly, on the 10th of July, 1S63. 

"'TEODOSIO LARES, President. 

" 'Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Secretary. 

" 'Jose Maria Andrade, Secretary. ' 

"Therefore, let it be printed, published by national edict, and circulated, and 
let due fulfilment be given thereto. 

" Given at the palace of the supreme executive power in Mexico, on the 
11th of July, 1863. 

"JUAN N. ALMONTE. 
"JOSE MARIANO SALAS. 
"JUAN B. ORMAECHEA. 

"To the Under Secretary of State and of the Office of Foreign 
Relations." 

And I communicate it to you for your knowledge and consequent purposes. 

J. M. ARROTO, 
Under Secretary of State and of tlie Office of Foreign Relations. 
Hon. William H. Seward. 



Mr. Arroyo to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

secretaryship of state and of the office of foreign relations. 

Palace of the Supreme Executive Power, 

Mexico, July 11, 1863. 

The provisional supreme executive power has been pleased to address me 
the following decree: 



468 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

"The provisional supreme executive power of the nation to the inhabitants 
thereof: Know ye, that the Assembly of Notables has thought fit to decree as 
follows : 

" 'The Assembly of Notables, in view of the decree of this date, has thought 
fit to decree: 

" ' Until the arrival of the sovereign the persons appointed, by decree of 22d 
of June last, to form the provisional government, shall exercise the power in 
the very terms established by the decree referred to, with the character of 
regency of the Mexican empire. 

" ' Given in the Hall of Sessions of the Assembly on the 11th of July, 1863. 

"'TEODOSIO LAKES, President. 

" 'Alejandro Arango y Escandon, Secretary. 
" 'Jose Maria Andrade, Secretary.' 

" Therefore, let it be printed, published, and circulated, aud let due fulfilment 
be given thereto. 

"Given at the palace of the supreme executive power in Mexico, on the 
11th of July, 1863. 

"JUAN N. ALMONTE. 
"JOSE MARIANO DE SALAS. 
"JUAN B. ORMAECHEA. 

" To the Under Secretary of State and of the Office of Foreign 
Relations." 

" DON J. MIGUEL ARROYO." 

And I communicate it to you for your knowledge and consequent purposes. 

J. M. ARROYO, 
Under Secretary of State, and of the Office of Foreign Relations. 

Hon. William H. Seward. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 

No. 352.] Paris, September 25, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch, No. 391, as to the proceedings of our minister resident at 
Salvador, in reference to French interests there, and the despatch from him to 
you on that subject, were at once communicated by me to the Foreign Office 
here. As it was evident that a copy of Mr. Partridge's despatch, stating what 
he had done in relation to French interests in that country, should be on the 
files of the Foreign Office here, I left the same temporarily with Mr. Drouyn de 
Lhuys, at his request, that he might have it copied, if so disposed. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, fyc, Sfc, §c. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

[Extracts.] 

No. 406.] Department of State, 

IVanhivgton, Sej)tember 26, 1863. 

Sir : Your confidential despatch of September 7, No. 342, has been received 
and carefully considered. * * * * * 

It is well understood that through a long period, closing in 1S60, the manifest 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 469 

strength of this nation was a sufficient protection, for itself and for Mexico, 
against all foreign states. That power was broken down and shattered in 
1S61, by faction. The first fruit of our civil war was a new, and in effect, 
though not intentionally so, an unfriendly attitude assumed by Great Britain, 
France, and Spain, all virtually, and the two first named powers avowedly, 
moving in concert. While I cannot confess to a fear on the part of this govern- 
ment that any one or all of the maritime powers combining Avith the insurgents 
could overthrow it, yet it would have been manifestly presumptuous, at any 
time since this distraction seized the American people, to have provoked such 
an intervention, or to have spared any allowable means of preventing it. The 
unceasing efforts of this department in that direction have resulted from this 
ever-present consideration. If in its communications the majestic efforts of the 
government to subdue the insurrection, and to remove the temptation which it 
offered to foreign powers, have not figured so largely as to impress my corre- 
spondents with the conviction that the President relies always mainly on the na- 
tional power, and not on the forbearance of those who it is apprehended may 
become its enemies, it is because the duty of drawing forth and directing the 
armed power of the nation has rested upon distinct departments, while to this 
one belonged the especial duty of holding watch against foreign insult, intru- 
sion, and intervention. With these general remarks I proceed to explain the 
President's views in regard to the first of the two questions mentioned, namely, 
the attitude of France in regard to the civil war in the United States. 

****** * 

The subject upon which I propose to remark, in the second place, is the 
relation of France towards Mexico. The United States hold, in regard to 
Mexico, the same principles that they hold in regard to all other nations. They 
have neither a right nor a disposition to intervene by force in the internal affairs 
of Mexico, whether to establish and maintain a republic or even a domestic gov- 
ernment there, or to overthrow an imperial or a foreign one, if Mexico chooses 
to establish or accept it. The United States have neither the right nor the dis- 
position to intervene by force on either side in the lamentable war which is 
going on between France and Mexico. On the contrary, they practice in regard 
to Mexico, in every phase of that war, the non-intervention which they require 
all foreign powers to observe in regard to the United States. But, notwith- 
standing this self-restraint, this government knows full well that the inherent 
normal opinion of Mexico favors a government there republican in form and 
domestic in its organization, in preference to any monarchical institutions to be 
imposed from abroad. This government knows, also, that this normal opinion 
of the people of Mexico resulted largely from the influence of popular opinion 
in this country, and is continually invigorated by it. The President believes, 
moreover, that this popular opinion of the United States is just in itself, and em- 
inently essential to the progress of civilization on the American continent, which 
civilization, it believes, can and will, if left free from European resistance, work 
harmoniously together with advancing refinement on the other continents. This 
government believes that foreign resistance, or attempts to control American 
civilization, must and will fail before the ceaseless and ever-increasing activity 
of material, moral, and political forces, which peculiarly belong to the American 
continent. Nor do the United States deny that, in their opinion, their own 
safety and the cheerful destiny to which they aspire are intimately dependent 
on the continuance of free republican institutions throughout America. They 
have submitted these opinions to the Emperor of France, on proper occasions, 
as worthy of his serious consideration, in determining how he would conduct 
and close what might prove a successful war in Mexico. Nor is it necessary 
to practice reserve upon the point, that if France should, upon due considera- 
tion, determine to adopt a policy in Mexico adverse to the American opinions 



470 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

and sentiments which I have described, that policy would probably scatter seeds 
which would be fruitful of jealousies, which might ultimately ripen into collision 
between France and the United States and other American republics. An 
illustration of this danger has occurred already. Political rumor, which is al- 
ways mischievous, one day ascribes to France a purpose to seize the Rio Grande, 
and wrest Texas from the United States ; another day rumor advises us to look 
carefully to our safety on the Mississippi ; another day Ave are warned of coali- 
tions to be formed, under French patronage, between the regency established in 
Mexico and the insurgent cabal at Richmond. The President apprehends none 
of these things. He does not allow himself to be disturbed by suspicions so 
unjust to France and so unjustifiable in themselves ; but he knows, also, that 
such suspicions will be entertained more or less extensively by this country, 
and magnified in other countries equally unfriendly to France and to America ; 
and he knows, also, that it is out of such suspicions that the fatal web of na- 
tional animosity is most frequently woven. He believes that the Emperor of 
France must experience desires as earnest as our own for the preservation of 
that friendship between the two nations which is so full of guarantees of their 
common prosperity and safety. Thinking this, the President would be wanting 
in fidelity to France, as well as to our own country, if he did not converse with 
the Emperor with entire sincerity and friendship upon the attitude which France 
is to assume in regard to Mexico. The statements made to you by M. Drouyn 
de Lhuys, concerning the Emperor's intentions, are entirely satisfactory, if we 
are permitted to assume them as having been authorized to be made by the Em- 
peror in view of the present condition of affairs in Mexico. It is true, as I have 
before remarked, that the Emperor's purposes may hereafter change with 
changing circumstances. "We, ourselves, however, are not unobservant of the 
progress of events at home and abroad ; and in no case are we likely to neglect 
such provision for our own safety as every sovereign state must always be pre- 
pared to fall back upon when nations with which they have lived in friendship 
cease to respect their moral and treaty obligations. Your own discretion will 
be your guide as to how far and in what way the public interests will be pro- 
moted, by submitting these views to the consideration of M. Drouyn de l'Huys. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



William L. Dayton, Esq., Sfc., 4 r -> 4' c - 



WILLIAM II. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 410.J Department of State, 

Washington, October 5, 1S63. 

Sir: Your despatches of the 14th of September (No. 345) and the 16th of 
September (No. 347) have been received. Moreover, I have been favored by 
Mr. Mercier with a visit, and with a reading of the despatch addressed to him 
by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, of which special mention is made in your communi- 
cations. 

The explanations made by you to him are correct, and they arc approved. 
Despatches from this department, which you must have received after writing 
your own, not only sustain those explanations, but they also draw very dis- 
tinctly the line of policy towards France which the President has marked out 
under the counsels of prudence, and the traditional friendship towards her which 
prevails in the United States. Any statesman who has observed how inllexi- 
bly this government adheres to the policy of peace and non-intervention, would 
noi need to be informed that the report of an alliance by us with Russia for 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 471 

European war is an absurdity. So, also, no one who knows how completely 
the American people suffer themselves to be absorbed in the duty of suppress- 
ing the present unhappy insurrection, and restoring the authority of the Union, 
would for a moment believe that we are preparing for or meditating a future 
war against any nation, for any purpose whatever, much less that we are or- 
ganizing or contemplating a future war against France, whom it is our constant 
desire to hold and retain as a friend, through all the vicissitudes of political 
fortune, and all the changes of national life. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
Hon. WiLLTAivrL. Dayton, Esq., fyc, 8fc., Sfc. 



Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. 
[Extracgt.] 
No. 361.] Paris, October 9, 1863. 

Sir : In the conference with Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys had yesterday, I com- 
municated the general views expressed by you in despatches Nos. 395 and 
400. 

I brought out your views, however, in the course of a general conversation 
about Mexican affairs. I asked of Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys what character of 
test was to be adopted, with a view to learn the wishes of that country (Mexico) 
as to its form of go vernment. He said that the vote of the entire country, and 
of all its departments, whether the French were or were not in their possession, 
would be taken, and if upon its registries it should appear that a large majority 
of the whole population (Spanish and Indian) were favorable to a monarchical 
form of government, he supposed that would be sufficient. He thought there 
would be no difficulty in applying this test, and showing a large numerical ma- 
jority in favor of the Archduke, and that form of government. 

Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys went on to say, that the dangers of the government 
of the Archduke would come principally from the United States, and the sooner 
we showed ourselves satisfied, and manifested a willingness to enter into peace- 
ful relations with that government, the sooner would France be ready to leave 
Mexico and the new government to take care of itself, which France would, in 
any event, do as soon as it with propriety could ; but that it would not lead or 
tempt the Archduke into difficulty, and then desert him before his government 
was settled. He added, that France could not do that. He said, that the early 
acknowledgment of that government by the United States would tend to shorten, 
or perhaps, he said, to end all the troublesome complications of France in that 
country; that they would thereupon quit Mexico. 

gp gp gp gp gp gp gp 

I told him that, without having any authority from my government to say so, 
I should scarcely suppose that France, under the circumstances, would expect 
the United States to make haste to acknowledge a new monarchy in Mexico ; 
but I would report his views to the government at home ; not suggesting, how- 
ever, that any answer would be given. In the course of conversation, he took 
occasion again to repeat, voluntarily, their disclaimer of any purpose to interfere 
with Texas, or to make or seek any permanent interest or control in Mexico. 
He said that our situation, as a next neighbor, entitled us to an influence there 
paramount to that of distant European countries, and that France, at her great 
distance from the scene, would not be guilty of the folly of desiring or attempt- 



472 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

ing to interfere with us. He spoke highly of the conduct of Mr. Corwin, our 
minister in Mexico, who was reported to him as not having intrigued or inter- 
fered in these matters, but that he had always acted loyally and in good faith. 
Before leaving Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys, (assuming the purposes of the Emperor 
to be as he represented them,) I asked him why he permitted so many false 
reports, as to his policy, to be circulated both in Europe and America. I told 
him that it seemed to me the interests of both countries demanded that they 
should cease, and that a frank avowal in the Moniteur would end them. He 
said there were objections to using the Moniteur for such purposes, but that 
there were his despatches, which might be published. I told him that the world 
was given to looking at despatches as savoring too much of diplomacy. He 
then said tbat the Emperor, at the opening of the " corps legislatif," would 
have a proper opportunity, and he did not doubt that he would then declare his 
policy in Mexico, in conformity with the declarations heretofore constantly 
made to us. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 412.] Department of State, 

Washington, October 10, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch of the 25th of last month, No. 352, describing your pro- 
ceedings in relation to Mr. Partridge's course respecting French interests at 
Salvador, has been received and is approved. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



William L. Dayton, Esq., Sfc., fyc, Sfc. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 

No. 417.] Department of State, 

Washington, October 23, 1863. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your despatch of the 
9th instant, No. 361, which brings me the views expressed by Mr. Drouyn de 
Lhuys concerning the situation in Mexico. Various considerations have induced 
the President to avoid taking any part in the speculative debates bearing on 
that situation which have been carried on in the capitals of Europe as well as 
in those of America. A determination to err on the side of strict neutrality, if 
we err at all, in a war which is carried on between two nations with which the 
United States are maintaining relations of amity and friendship, was prominent 
among the considerations to which I have thus referred. 

J The United States, nevertheless, when invited by France or Mexico, cannot 
omit to express themselves with perfect frankness upon new incidents, as they 
occur in the progress of that war. Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys now speaks of an 
election which he expects to be held in Mexico, and to result in the choice of 
his Imperial Highness the Prince Maximilian of Austria to be Emperor of Mexico. 
We learn from other sources that the prince has declared his willingness to ac- 
cept an imperial throne in Mexico on three conditions, namely : first, that he 
shall be called to it by the universal suffrage of the Mexican nation ; secondly, 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 473 

that he shall receive indispensable guarantees for the integrity and independence 
of the proposed empire ; and thirdly, that the head of his family, the Emperor 
of Austria, shall acquiesce. 

Referring to these facts, Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys intimates that an early ac- 
knowledgment of the proposed empire by the United States would be convenient 
to France, by relieving her, sooner than might be possible under other circum- 
stances, from her troublesome complications in Mexico. 

Happily the French government has not been left uninformed that, in the 
opinion of the United States, the permanent establishment of a foreign and 
monarchical government in Mexico will be found neither easy nor desirable. 
You will inform Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys that this opinion remains unchanged. On 
the other hand, the United States cannot anticipate the action of the people 
of Mexico, nor have they the least purpose or desire to interfere with their pro- 
ceedings, or control or interfere with their free choice, or disturb them in the 
enjoyment of whatever institutions of government they may, in the exercise of 
an absolute freedom, establish. It is proper, also, that Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys 
should be informed that the United States continue to regard Mexico as the 
theatre of a war which has not yet ended in the subversion of the government 
long existing there, with which the United States remain in the relation of 
peace and sincere friendship ; and that, for this reason, the United States are 
not now at liberty to consider the question of recognizing a government which, 
in the further chances of war, may come into its place. The United States, con- 
sistently with their principles, can do no otherwise than leave the destinies of 
Mexico in the keeping of her own people, and recognize their sovereignty and 
independence in whatever form they themselves shall choose that this sovereignty 
and independence shall be manifested. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



William L. Dayton, Esq., Sfc., fyc., §c. 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. 



No. 437.] Department of State, 

Washington, November 28, 1S63. 
Sir : I transmit for your information a copy of a communication of the 23d 
instant, addressed by this department to Major General Banks, and of an in- 
struction of the same date (No. 88) to Mr. Corwin. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
William L. Dayton, Esq., fye., fyc, fyc. 



Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys to Mr. Mercier. 
[Translation.] 

No. 21.] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Division, 

Paris, September 15, 1S63. 
Sir : Mr. Dayton, who exhibits in his relations with me a great confidence, 
and a rectitude to which I am pleased to bear testimony, has been moved at 
certain rumors, propagated with a design which I have not now to inquire 
into, but which appear lately to have obtained some credit at Paris, and he has 
come to converse with me about them. According to these reports, too incon- 
siderately accepted, the Emperor's government has decided to recognize the 



474 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

States of the south, and a treaty has even been already signed, according to which 
the new confederacy is to cede to France, either for herself, or that she may 
make a retrocession of them to Mexico, Texas and a portion of Louisiana. 

At the moment in which Mr. Dayton was imparting to me this information, I 
was exactly in a position to offer him information for information, and, before 
answering the questions which he addressed me, I asked him if, among the 
alarming symptons for the maintenance of the good relations of the two coun- 
tries, he had not, like myself, received other news, likewise diffused in public, 
such as, for instance, the transmission by him to me of a protest from his gov- 
ernment against our expedition to Mexico and its consequences ; the conclusion 
of an alliance, offensive and defensive, between the United States and Russia ; 
the appearance of a federal fleet before Vera Cruz, &c, &c. 

In regard to the protest, after remarking to me that I, better than any one 
else, knew that he had not transmitted to me any, Mr. Dayton said to me that, 
under the promptings of the general tenor of the correspondence of Mr. Seward, 
and of the knowledge which he himself had of the inclinations of his fellow- 
citizens, he had been able to speak to me of the painful impression produced 
on public opinion in his country by the preponderant intervention of a Euro- 
pean power in an American republic, and by the creation of a monarchical es- 
tablishment in a country adjacent to the United States : but that from that to a 
protest, or to any intention whatever of comminatory intermeddling, was very 
far, and that nothing in his instructions authorized him to overleap that dis- 
tance. He knew nothing, on the other hand, of the alleged alliance of his 
government with Russia, and he had every reason to disbelive it. As to the 
presence of a federal fleet before Vera Cruz, this news did not seem to him even 
to merit the honor of a contradiction. 

I told Mr. Dayton that I had never attached any importance to the reports 
which I had pointed out to him, and that, in speaking to him of them, my ob- 
ject was much less to call forth explanations on his part, than to warn him 
against rumors of a different character ; but having probably the same origin of 
which he had spoken to me, I could, however, contradict them categorically. 
In regard to the recognition of the States of the south, the intentions of the Em- 
peror's government were known to him, and this question was still at the point 
where our late conversations had left him. We had not, therefore, recognized 
the south, and, much more, we had not signed with it any treaty for the cession 
of Louisiana and Texas. With respect to this, I could repeat to him, what I 
had so often said to him already, that we neither sought for ourselves, nor for 
others, any acquisition in America. I added that I trusted that the good 
sense of the people of the United States would do justice to exaggerations and 
false suppositions, by the aid of which it was endeavored to mislead and sour 
public opinion ; and that I relied on his co-operation in trying to render prev- 
alent a more equitable appreciation of our intentions and of the necessities 
which our policy obeyed. 

I have thought, sir, that it was well that you should be informed of the par- 
ticulars of this conversation, in order that you might, on your part, communi- 
cate it to Mr. Seward, and receive the precise words of it, in order to rectify 
•around you false opinions and unjustifiable anticipations. 
Accept, sir, assurances of my high consideration. 

DROUYN DE LHUYS. 

Mr. Merciek, 

Minister of the Emperor at Washington, D. C. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 475 

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward. 
[Extracts.] 
No. 97.J United States Legation, 

The Hague, August 19, 1863. 

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your despatch of July 24, (No. 111.) 

Two Aveeks' digestion of the news from America results in no revival of 
hopes on this side for the rebellion. The partisans of the south seem dis- 
couraged and disheartened. The only pretence they raise, to mitigate the 
extremity of the situation, is the allegation that their case has seemed equally 
desperate before.- The argument does not arrest the fall of their sinking for- 
tunes on the exchange. Their favorite cotton loan, so lately above par, is down 
to 70. The complete break down of the financial system of the insurgents, 
demonstrated by the fall of their paper currency to 10 cents on the dollar, has, 
perhaps, more weight attached to it here than in the United States. It is 
regarded as indicating a near relapse. Dispassionate observers fail to see how 
the resources of the rebel government are to be replenished, or their finances 
even nominally administered. The melting away of its armies, from internal 
weakness, alone seems thus inevitable. 

But beyond this, the clearing out of the Mississippi river, if its approaches 
be properly guarded against any sudden descent of armed iron-clads from 
Europe, is viewed as a fatal grip at the throat of the rebellion. The events 
occurring in Mexico make New Orleans looked upon more than ever as the key 
of our empire. Its original capture was considered in Europe a deadly blow to 
the insurrection. The conviction was and is that it should be made impregnable 
to attack by sea, which seems easy enough ; the hostile action of no power in 
the Gulf need be feared. But should this safeguard be neglected, we might 
find our dear-bought triumphs suddenly brought to a disastrous termination. 
Our enemies tried to find consolation in the hope that Ave shall be less prudent 
to secure than we have been energetic to conquer. 

That Ave must look to ultimate collision in that quarter Avith foreign poAvers, 
the action of France in Mexico does not seem to alloAv us to doubt. 

As I took occasion to observe some months ago (I believe you thought pre- 
maturely) the cotton question is ended in Europe. We have entirely gone by 
that danger. Cotton is abundant. The only disturbing fact that remains 
is that the price is so high that manufacturers decline to spin and weave on the 
old scale. Distress is again setting into the manufacturing districts, but the 
disorder and suffering is, to a great extent, compensated by the excellent har- 
vest which almost everyAvhere prevails. 

Now, therefore, as heretofore. I believe Ave are to be unmolested from abroad. 
If we can furnish the troops necessary to follow up our recent great successes 
triumphantly, Ave shall have a glorious issue from our trials. Viewed at this 
distance, the prospects of the country have never seemed so encouraging. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, 

JAMES S. PIKE. 

Hon. William H. Suavard, 

Secretary of State, 8fc. 



Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward. 
[Extract.] 

No. 99.] United States Legation, 

The Hague, September 2, 1863. 
Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 13th of 
August, (No. 115,) and your circular despatch of the 12th of the same month, 



476 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

with an accompanying map, giving an exposition of the military situation; all 
of which are attentively considered. 

Political affairs are comparatively quiet. 

The conference of German sovereigns at Frankfort has ended; with what 
success in the main purpose of consolidating their power against France remains 
to he seen. England approves and encourages the movement. France throws 
cold water on the proceedings, notwithstanding the real ohject of the conference 
is veiled under other pretences. 

Some of the French journals are engaged in the effort to show that the United 
States have no cause of hostility to the effort to establish an empire upon the 
ruins of Mexican independence. The argument proceeds iipon the assumption 
that France does not desire to do any offensive political act towards the United 
States, and so far intimates inactivity upon the question of recognition. 

It seems to be reduced to a certainty that the Polish question will not disturb 
the peace of Europe. Russia claims that the rebellion is exhausted. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, 

JAMES S. PIKE. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Washington. 



Mr. Setvard to Mr. Pike. 



No. 118.] Department of State, 

Washington, Septcmoer 5, 1S63. 

Sir : Your despatch of August 19 (No. 97) has been carefully considered. 

What you have noticed in Europe, in regard to the political aspects of the in- 
surrection here, has been equally observable here during the period which you 
have mentioned. No fortunate military incident has occurred to revive the hopes 
of the insurgents, while Union sieges and marches have gone on favorably. The 
insurgents have burned much and lost more of the cotton that they had pledged to 
European creditors, while the price of gold in their currency has risen, within 
two months, from 1,0C0 per cent, to 1,600 per cent., which is the last reported 
rate. The insurgent financiers last winter adopted wheat instead of gold for 
the standard of values, and fixed that of wheat, if I remember rightly, at five 
dollars per bushel. It is now reported that the farmer refuses to thresh his 
wheat, and the government agents are considering whether the power to appro- 
priate at five dollars does not also include the necessary preliminary power to 
thresh the grain. 

You have rightly assumed that the safe occupation of New Orleans, so long 
as it is maintained, is sufficient guarantee for the success of the government. We 
are, however, not without some concern on that subject; for, in the first place, 
we have no clearly reliable assurances that the British government will prevent 
the departure of the iron rams, which are being prepared in British ship yards, 
for that or some similar purpose. And next, notwithstanding the great energy 
of the Navy Department, it has not yet brought out the vessels upon which we 
can confidently rely for adequate defence against such an enterprise. Neverthe- 
less, Mr. Adams is making the best possible efforts with reference to the first 
point, and our naval means, which certainly are neither small nor inefficient, 
are rapidly increasing. Your observations on this subject are so sagacious that 
I have thought it proper to enmmend them to the special attention of the Navy 
Department. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 477 

I thank you for the account you have given me of public opinion in Europe 
in regard to the condition of Mexico and its bearing on the interests of the 
United States. Public opinion is not embarrassed by a want of accurate knowl- 
edge of existing facts. It anticipates and assumes probable events, and thus 
the imagination early arrives at, and is satisfied with, premature solutions ; from 
Mexico we have nothing in regard to the attitude or proceedings of the republi- 
can government since it withdrew before the invaders to San Luis; from France 
nothing in regard to the question of a new government, but reiterated assurances 
of an absence of any design to permanently occupy or dominate in Mexico ; and 
from Austria, only the speculations of the press upon a condition of affairs in 
Mexico, too imperfectly developed to justify any decisive action by the alleged 
candidate for an imperial crown. 

In these circumstances we see no occasion for extreme sensibility or for im- 
mediate demonstration. Mr. Corwin cannot, of course, communicate with the 
authorities newly instituted in the city of Mexico, while he is shut out from 
access to the republican one to which he is accredited. That government may, 
for aught we know, maintain an effectual resistance to the new one, or, on the 
other hand, it may even suecumb. Such a resistance would relieve the people of 
all difficulties, while, on the other hand, it would be as unreasonable as it would 
be unavailing to seek to rescue a people that should voluntarily surrender itself 
to foreign control. The new government, if it succeeds, may respect the sove- 
reignty and all the rights of the United States, and so give us no cause of com- 
plaint or dissatisfaction. Our opinions as to the ultimate and permanent suc- 
cess of an European intervention in Mexico were early expressed by way of 
anticipation. Until we recall them no presumption that they are abandoned 
can arise. But we see now, instead of a whole and normal Mexico on our 
southern border, a Mexico divided between Mexicans and the French. We do 
not know how this new condition of things might sooner or later affect the au- 
thority of the United States in Texas. Independently of that consideration, 
the time has arrived when that authority ought to be, and, as we think, can be, 
restored in that important border State, and this will be done. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



James S. Pike, Esq., <$-c, fyc., fyv., 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry. 



No. 10.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 21, 1863. 

Sir: Your despatch of August 26 (No. 110) has been received. The general 
views of the United States concerning the interests of society and government 
in Mexico, and on this continent, have been heretofore fully made known to all 
parties who officially expressed to us any concern on that subject. While 
adhering to these views, the President does not perceive any necessity for 
entering at present into the European debates which have arisen out of the 
changing phases of the war with France against Mexico. You will be promptly 
advised if it shall be deemed important to enter into explanations on that subject 
with the cabinet of Madrid. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Horatio J. Perry, Esq., Sfc, fyc., Sfc, Madrid. 



478 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

Mr. Motley to Mr. Seivard. 

No. 31.] Legation of the United States, 

Vienna, August 17, 1S63. 

Sir : So soon as the news of the proclamation of the empire in Mexico, 
together with the offer of the imperial crown to the Archduke Ferdinand 
Maximilian, reached Vienna, I requested an interview with Count Rechberg. 

I saw the minister accordingly on the 11th August. As he was to leave 
next day for Frankfort to attend the conference at the diet of sovereigns, and 
as many other members of the diplomatic corps were waiting to see him, the 
interview was necessarily very brief; I merely begged him to inform me what 
was authentically known to him in regard to the Mexican affair. 

He replied that tbe intelligence received by the government was hardly in an 
authentic shape. He said : We do not consider our situation essentially altered. 
We are not prepared to take action on what may prove to be an ephemeral 
demonstration. We regard all that is reported concerning the whole affair — so 
far as relates to his Imperial Highness — as not having occurred ; (comme nan 
avenu was his expression, the conversation being in French.) I asked if he 
considered it true that a deputation was on the way from Mexico to offer the 
crown to the archduke. He replied that it was possible, but that it was very 
doubtful whether such a deputation would be received. 

I asked if it was true that a telegram had been sent by the Emperor Napoleon 
congratulating the archduke ©n the news. He said yes ; but that, from the 
tenor of the telegram, the Emperor Napoleon did not appear to attach much 
weight to the intelligence. 

Under such circumstances, I said it was useless to ask whether any decision 
had been taken in regard to the offer, as such a question had already been an- 
swered in the negative by Avhat he had already said. 

He replied, " of course ;" and I then took my leave, saying that I only wished 
to know the exact position of the affair up to the present moment. 

I beg to be informed, at your earliest convenience, what language you wish 
me officially to hold on this very important subject. The recent conquest of 
Mexico by France seems to me fraught with future woe to our whole continent ; 
but I cannot think it desirable, in the present condition of our own affairs, that 
we should hasten the evil day by taking any part in that most unhappy adven- 
ture. 

It is generally supposed that the Archduke Maximilian is desirous of accept- 
ing the crown of Mexico, but I am not aware that there are many persons in 
this empire who regard the project with favor. It certainly is an unpopular one 
with all classes of society, so far as I have been able to observe. 

The language of the press is, in some cases, guarded, but in general de- 
cidedly hostile on the subject. 

As a specimen of Vienna journalism in this matter, I send you a translation 
of a portion of an article from a widely circulated journal, Die Presse. The 
tone, although bold and bitter, is not exceptionably so. 

I have the honor, sir, to remain your obedient servaut, 

J. LOTHROP MOTLEY. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Washington. 



[Extract from the Presse of August 11, 1663.] 

"The journals of Paris announce to-day that tlie Emperor and Empress have already sent 
congratulations by telegraph to the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, on the imperial Mexican 
dignity which has been offered to him. Well, they may think it a piece of good fortune — nud 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 47 & 

they may have their reasons for it — to obtain possession of a crown in such a way in a 
country like Mexico. We, however, believe that we are a faithful organ of the opinion of the 
Austrian people when we say, without concealment, that the acceptance of the crown by the 
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian would not be looked upon by any of them as a piece of 
good fortune, but, on the contrary, they would look upon it as an evil destiny. An evil 
destiny, we say, for it Avould be nothing else if an Austrian prince should ever seriously 
think of accepting a crown from the hands of a Napoleon. In the deepest humiliation of 
Germany by the forcible dominion of Napoleon I, we find nothing similar to this ; and shall 
constitutional Austria bear to-day what absolute Austria was too proud to endure ? And 
what sort of a crown is it? Without any plausible reason, treading under foot those 
liberties of the people of which they are always speaking, the French soldiers have 
broken into Mexico, and, after shedding streams of blood, they have occupied the Mexi- 
can capital, followed by the curses of a people hitherto proud of its independence. And 
shall a crown of tears and blood, conquered in this forcible manner, be placed upon 
the head of a prince of constitutional Austria, perhaps as an indemnity for the pearl 
which in 1859 was broken from Austria's crown, or as a present to keep us unharmed 
in case of future occurrences of a similar kind ? The more we lose ourselves in specu- 
lations of this kind, the more impossible, adventurous, unacceptable, and monstrous, 
this proposed attention of the court of Napoleon to Austria appears to us. Have those who 
play with the thoughts of wrapping themselves in the purple mantle of an Aztec emperor 
already reflected on the political consequences which would follow Austria's acceptance of 
this imperial crown ? Have they painted to themselves the wretched, dependent relation, 
the vassalage in which Austria — even assuming that there is no thought of compensation at 
the bottom of the French offer — that it is dictated by the purest unselfishness — will find itself 
in regard to Napoleonic France by accepting the Mexican throne ? Is Archduke Maximilian, 
in Mexico, to be the counterpart to King George of Greece, with only the difference that 
before his throne French soldiers would keep watch, as the king's crown in Athens would 
be protected by those of England ? And even if it should be decided to give the new 
Emperor of Mexico an Austrian corps as an escort, has the cost of this scheme been already 
counted ? What in the name of Heaven has Austria to do in this Mexican galley ? It would 
be bound and exposed to France on all sides for this present of the Danaides, and particu- 
larly in regard to Poland it would be made lame and impotent in its political action ; it 
would afford France a pretext for occupying Mexico, as the Pope affords a pretext for occu- 
pying Pome ; it will have engaged its honor for specific French speculations, without satis- 
fying a single reasonable interest. We already see the moment when the Cabinet of Wash- 
ington, fortified by the Monroe doctrine, by the alliance of the states of Central and South 
America, and by the enormous military resources which the end of the civil war will leave at 
its disposition, shall call upon the French in Mexico to leave a continent on which they have 
no business and no right to command. Shall Austria, then, make war in company with 
France upon America to uphold and occupy a problematical throne in Mexico ? That would 
be the height of the adventurous, and Austria would have then no alternative than that of a 
shameful fiasco or that of a vassalage, which would absorb its best powers for the interests of 
France. Even if the thought of ruling the old empire of the Aztecs should not be devoid of 
poetic charm to a romantic character, we believe that the times have gone by when such 
caprices are sufficient to compromise the policy of great states and to throw them into endless 
complications. And so we still hope that the answer of Austria to the proposition of the 
Mexican asamblea, received by way of Paris, will, this time, be a decided negative, and 
that once for all an end will be put to an intrigue which has no other aim than to shift the 
ignominy of the Mexican expedition — that attack on an independent people — from the 
shoulders of France on those of Austria, and to cover the gulf of the dirty speculations of the 
banker Jecker and his worthy associates in France and Mexico with the brilliant name of 
an Austrian prince." 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley. 

No. 41.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 11, 1863. 

Sir : Your despatch of August 17 (No. 31) has been received. 

When France made war against Mexico, we asked of France explanations 
of her objects and purposes. She answered, that it was a war for the redress 
of grievances ; that she did not intend to permanently occupy or dominate in 
Mexico, and that she should leave to the people of Mexico a free choice of 
institutions of government. Under these circumstances the United States 
adopted, and they have since maintained, entire neutrality between the bel- 
ligerents, in harmony with the traditional policy in regard to foreign wars. 



480 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

The war has continued longer than was anticipated. At different stages of it 
France has, in her intercourse with us, renewed the explanations before men- 
tioned. The French army has now captured Puebla and the capital, while the 
Mexican government, with its principal forces, is understood to have retired to 
San Luis Potosi, and a provisional government has been instituted under 
French auspices in the city of Mexico, which, being supported by arms, divides 
the actual dominion of the country with the Mexican government, also main- 
tained by armed power. That provisional government has neither made nor 
sought to make any communication to the government of the United States, 
nor has it been, in any way, recognized by this government. France has made 
no communication to the United States concerning the provisional government 
which has been established in Mexico, nor has she announced any actual or 
intended departure from the policy in regard to that country which her before- 
mentioned explanations have authorized us to expect her to pursue. The 
United States have received no communications relating to the recent military 
events in Mexico from the recognized government of that country. 

The imperial government of Austria has not explained to the United States 
that it has an interest in the subject, or expressed any desire to know their 
views upon it. The United States have heretofore, on proper occasions, frankly 
explained to every party having an interest in the question the general views 
and sentiments which they have always entertained, and still entertain, in re- 
gard to the interests of society and government on this continent. Under these 
circumstances, it is not deemed necessary for the representatives of the United 
States, in foreign countries, to engage in the political debates which the present 
unsettled aspect of the war in Mexico has elicited. You will be promptly ad- 
vised if a necessity for any representations to the government of Austria shall 
arise. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

J. Lothrop Motley, Esq., Sfc., fyc, Vienna. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley. 



No. 43.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 26, 1663. 

Sir : Your interesting despatch of September 1 (No. 32) has been received. 
The United States are not indifferent to the events which are occurring in 
Mexico. They are regarded, however, as incidents of the war between France 
and Mexico. While the governments of those two countries are not improperly 
left in any uncertainty about the sentiments of the United States, the reported 
relations of a member of the imperial family of Austria to those events do not 
seem sufficient to justify this government in making any representations on 
that subject to the government of the Emperor. His candor and fairness 
towards the United States warrant the President in believing, as he firmly 
does, that his Majesty -will not suffer his government to be engaged in any pro- 
ceeding hostile or injurious to the United States. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

J. Lothrop Motley, d$r., &pc., Vienna. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 481 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley. 

No. 45.] Department of State, 

Washington, October 9, 1S63. 

Sir: Your despatch of the 21st of September, No. 34, has been received. 

You have proceeded very properly in giving to Count Rechberg a copy of 
my despatch to Mr. Dayton of the 3d of March, 1862. This government de- 
sires to practice no concealment in its intercourse with foreign states. During 
the discussion concerning Mexico, and France, and the United States, which 
has been going on in Europe, I have refrained from instructing you to speak 
for the United States. This reserve has been practiced because the questions 
immediately concern only the three states mentioned, and the personal relation 
to them of the Austrian grand-duke is an incident which could only bring the 
imperial royal government under any responsibility to the United States when 
that government should attempt or propose to violate some actual political 
right, or disregard some practical interest, which it would be the duty of the 
President to maintain or assert. But in this course of proceeding it has not 
been my intention to deny to you a full knowledge of the position of the Pre- 
sident in regard to the questions debated. France is at war with Mexico, and 
at peace with the United States, and a civil war is raging in the United States. 
I am to speak of the attitude of France towards the United States in relation 
to this civil war, and also to speak of the attitude of France toward Mexico, 
as it bears on the United States. For the sake of perspicuity I keep the two 
topics distinctly separate, and I treat the last one first. 

We know from many sources, and even from the direct statement of the 
Emperor of France, that on the breaking out of the insurrection he adopted 
the then current opinion of European statesmen that the efforts of this govern- 
ment to suppress it would be unsuccessful. To this pre-judgment we attribute 
his agreement with Great Britain to act in concert with her upon international 
questions which might arise out of the conflict, his practical concession of a 
belligerent character to the insurgents, his repeated suggestions of accommoda- 
tions by this ' government with the insurgents, and his conferences on the sub- 
ject of a recognition. These proceedings of the Emperor of France have been 
very injurious to the United States by encouraging and thus prolonging- the 
insurrection. On the other hand, no statesman of this country is able to con- 
ceive of a reasonable motive on the part of France or the Emperor to do or to 
wish injury to the United States. Every statesman in the United States cherishes 
a lively interest in the welfare and greatness of France, and is content that she 
shall peacefully and in unbounded prosperity enjoy the administration of the 
Emperor she has chosen. We have not an acre of territory, nor a fort, which 
we think France could wisely covet ; nor has she any possession that we could 
accept if she would resign it into our hands. Nevertheless, when recurring to 
what the Emperor of France has already done, we cannot, at any time, feel 
assured that, under mistaken impressions of our embarrassments in consequence 
of a lamentable civil war, he may not go further in the way of encouragement 
to the insurgents, whose intrigues in Paris we understand and do not under- 
estimate. While the Emperor of France has held an unfavorable opinion of 
our national strength and unity, we, on the contrary, have as constantly in- 
dulged an entire confidence in both. Not merely the course of events, but that 
of time also, opposes the insurrection and reiuvigorates the national strength 
and power. Under these convictions, we avoid everything calculated to irritate 
France by wounding the just pride and proper sensibilities of that spirited 
nation, and thus we hope to free our claim to her just forbearance in our present 
political emergency from any cloud of passion or prejudice. Pursuing this 
course, the President hopes that the pre-judgment of the Emperor against the 
H. Ex. Doc. 11 31 



482 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

stability of the Union may give way to considerations which will modify his 
course and bring him back to the traditional friendship which he found existing 
between this country and his own when, in obedience to her voice, he assumed 
the administration of her government. These desires and purposes of ours do 
not imply either a fear of imperial hostility, or any neglect of a prudent posture 
of national self-reliance, and in that posture we constantly aim to stand. 

I speak next of the relation of France towards Mexico. Until 1S60 our 
prestige was a protection to her and to all the other republican states on 
this continent. That prestige has been temporarily broken up by domestic 
faction and civil war. France has invaded Mexico, and war exists between 
those two countries. The United States hold, in regard to these two states 
and their conflict, the same principle that they hold in relation to all other 
nations and their mutual wars. They have neither a right nor any disposition 
to intervene by force in the internal affairs of Mexico, whether to establish or 
to maintain a republican or even a domestic government there, or to overthrow 
an imperial or a foreign one if Mexico shall choose to establish or accept it. 
The United States have not a right nor a disposition to intervene by force on 
either side in the lamentable war which is going on between France and Mexico. 
On the contrary, they practice in regard to Mexico, in every phase of the Avar, 
the non-intervention which they require all foreign powers to observe in regard 
to the United States. But notwithstanding this self-restraint, this government 
knows full well that the inherent normal opinion of Mexico favors a govern- 
ment there republican in form and democratic in its organization in preference 
to any monarchical institutions to be imposed from abroad. This government 
knows also that this normal opinion of the people of Mexico resulted largely 
from the influence of popular opinion in this country, which constantly invigor- 
ates it. The President, moreover, believes that this popular opinion of the 
United States is just in itself and eminently essential to the progress of civili- 
zation on the American continent, which civilization he believes can and will, if 
left free from European resistance, work harmoniously together with advancing 
refinement on the other continents. This government believes that all foreign 
resistance to American civilization, and all attempts to control it, must and will 
fail before the ceaseless and ever-increasing activity of material, moral, and 
political forces which peculiarly belong to the American continent. Nor do 
the United States deny that in their opinion their own safety and the cheerful 
destiny to which they aspire are intimately dependent on the continuance of 
free republican institutions throughout America, and that their policy will 
always be directed to that end. They have frankly, and on proper occasions, 
submitted these opinions to the Emperor of France, as worthy of his serious 
consideration, in determining how he would conduct and close what might 
prove a successful war in Mexico. Nor do we practice reserve upon the point 
that if France should, upon due consideration, determine to adopt a policy in 
Mexico adverse to the American opinions and sentiments which I have de- 
scribed, that policy would probably scatter seeds which would be fruitful of 
jealousies that might ultimately ripen into collisions between France and the 
United States and other American republics. An illustration of this danger has 
occurred already. Political rumor, which is always suspicious, one day ascribes 
to France a purpose to seize the Rio Grande and wrest Texas from the United 
States. Another day rumor advises us to look carefully to our safety on the 
Mississippi. Another day we are warned of coalitions to be formed under 
French patronage between the regency that has been recently set up at the 
city of Mexico and the insurgent cabal at Richmond. The President appre- 
hends none of these things, and does not allow himself to be disturbed by 
suspicions. But he knows also that such suspicions will be entertained more 
or less extensively in this country, and will be magnified in other countries, 
and he knows, also, that it is out of such suspicions that the fatal web of national 
animosity is most frequently woven. The President, upon the assurances 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 483 

which he has received from the Emperor of France, expects that he will neither 
deprive the people of Mexico of their free choice of government nor seek to 
maintain any permanent occupation or dominion there. 

It is true that the purposes or policy of the Emperor of France, in these 
respects, may change with changing circumstances. Although we are confid- 
ing, we are not therefore unobservant, and in no case are we likely to neglect 
such provision for our own safety as every people must always be prepared to 
fall back upon when a nation with which they have lived in friendship ceases 
to respect its moral and treaty obligations. 

In giving you this summary of our positions, I have simply drawn off from 
the records the instructions under which Mr. Dayton is acting at Paris. I re- 
main of the opinion that national dignity is best conserved by confining the 
discussion of these affairs to the cabinets of the United States, France, and 
Mexico, and that no public interest is to be advanced by opening it at Vienna, 
and, therefore, I do not direct you to communicate this despatch to the imperial 
royal court. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

J. Lothrop Motley, Esq., 8fc, fyc, Vienna. 



Mr. Seicard to Mr. Nelson. 



No. 14.] Department of State, 

Washington, June 19, 1862. 

Sir : Your despatch of May 1 (No. 33) has been received. 

The change of opinion and sentiment which has taken place in Chili in 
regard to our domestic troubles is the attainment of an important advantage 
which the President early determined to secure, if possible, by frank, hon- 
orable, and generous efforts. It is certainly true that there cannot perma- 
nently exist two autagonistical systems of government upon this continent, nor 
can there always be two commercial systems upon this continent, one of which 
must have its centre here and the other in Europe. The social differences 
which distinguish the Latin races from those of northern stock are likely to be 
long perpetuated on that continent. But there is a constant and rapid tendency 
towards harmony and assimilation between them in America, and ultimately a 
constitution of society decidedly American must exist here. Such a change is 
necessary to secure a complete development of the resources of the continent, 
and necessary even to render the states which are to exist here safe against 
domestic divisions and foreign aggression. The change, however, is to be 
effected not by wars and conquests, but peacefully through the influence of 
moral causes. Each American state must practice justice and forbearance and 
cordial friendship towards every other state, and all must come to learn that 
political institutions, which fail to secure peace and to create prosperity, cannot 
be upheld even by any combination with foreign powers. 

The United States want no more extended empire. The field they occupy 
is adequate to the employment of all their energies, and ample for the play of 
their just ambition. Thus content with their boundaries, they daily become 
more intolerant of the idea of any division of their domain, or any encroachment 
upon it by foreign powers. These sentiments have thus far been the great in- 
vigorating forces of the country in the present war, and have, as we believe, 
carried us safely to the point where the end begins. We have not been una- 
ware that reactionary forces have manifested themselves in neighboring Ameri- 
can states, and threaten a subversion of their republican institutions, and of 



484 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

course a subversion of their sovereignty and independence. It might be doubt- 
ful whether states thus menaced could in any case be benefited by material aid 
borrowed from any foreign nation. Every loan of that kind is ultimately re- 
paid with the loss of a part of the independence which it was intended to save. 
But the Latin states of America may rest assured that the United States will 
maintain their own integrity and independence through the greatest trials, and 
thus show to the Avorld that American institutions possess virtues and advan- 
tages which make the nations which enjoy them indissoluble and invulnerable. 
We invite Chili and all the other American states to cultivate the same spirit, 
and exhibit the same determination. 

The attempt to revolutionize the American Union has already failed. The 
disappointed faction, if they are to be believed, will seek compensation for their 
failure in revenge. They have commenced what they threaten shall be a twenty 
years' guerilla war. The measure itself is an evidence of imbecility, and of a 
profound misunderstanding of the American character. Peace and harmony 
under the authority of the federal Union are due as a reward to the loyalty and 
virtue which the American people have practiced in their recent trial, and they 
are not now far distant. 

1 am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Thomas H. Nelson, Esq. 



Mr. Kelson to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract.] 

No. 48.] Legation of the United States, 

Santiago de Chili, Septe?nber 1, 1S62. 

Sir: Upon the 30th ultimo I addressed the secretary of foreign relations a 
note, having for its object a frank exposition of what I deemed the sentiments 
of the government of the United States towards the other American republics. 
In preparing this note, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, I availed my- 
self of the views expressed in your despatch No. 14, of June 19, 1S62, and in 
the correspondence submitted by you to the President, under date of April 14, 
in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of February 

3, 1S62. 

# # * * # # # 

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

THOMAS H. NELSON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State of the United States. 



Mr. Nelson to Mr. Tocornal. 

Legation of the United States, 

Santiago de Chili, August 30, 1S62. 

Sir: Upon the 1st of May last, in a despatch to the honorable Secretary of 
State of the United States, I had the honor to express my gratification at the 
hearty manifestations of a desire evinced by a portion of the press of Chili for 
the suppression of the domestic dissension existing in the United States, and 
for a closer drawing together of the bonds uniting the other nations of America 
with our own. I moreover assured the honorable Secretary of my belief that 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 485 

these were the prevailing sentiments of the government as well as of the people 
of this republic, who were, to say the least, solicitous regarding the policy of 
some of the powers of western Europe towards the comparatively defenceless 
states of Spanish America. I also alluded to the gratifying circumstance that 
the United States and their citizens had, in my opinion, never before occupied 
a more favorable position in the estimation of Chili than at present — a more 
intimate knowledge of our people, aims and policy, having developed a true 
appreciation and cordial esteem, which could not but most favorably affect all 
our relations with this republic. 

Under date of the 19th of June, 1862, the honorable Secretary addressed 
me, in reply to the one above alluded to, a despatch of which the relative po- 
sitions of the United States of America and her sister republics, in view of the 
gravity of the present political situation, form the basis. 

Feeling assured that a knowledge of the sentiments of my government upon 
this subject cannot but be most gratifying to the government of your excellency, 
I have believed that our official intercourse could not be more agreeably initiated 
than in a frank and sincere expression of such sentiments of which I am most 
happy in being the exponent. 

I need not assure your excellency that my government has felt the most 
profound interest in the events now occurring in the neighboring and sister re- 
public of Mexico, wherein reactionary forces have been threatening a subver- 
sion of her republican institutions, and, of course, a subversion of her sove- 
reignty and independence. 

The United States are deeply concerned in the peace of nations, and at the 
same time aim to be loyal in all their relations to European as well as American 
states. The President, while relying upon the good faith of the allied powers, 
and confident of their sincerity in disclaiming any intention to intervene to 
change the constitutional form of government, has deemed it his duty to ex- 
press to them the opinion that no monarchical government which could be 
founded in Mexico, in the presence of foreign navies and armies in her waters 
and upon her soil, would have any prospect of security or permanency ; secondly, 
that the instability of such a monarchy there would be enhanced if the throne 
should be assigned to any person not of Mexican nativity. That under such 
circumstances the new government must fall, unless it could draw into its sup- 
port European alliances, which, relating back to the present invasion, would, in 
fact, make it the beginning of a permanent policy of armed European inter- 
vention, injurious and practically hostile to the most general system of govern- 
ment on the continent of America, and this would be the beginning, rather than 
the ending, of revolution in Mexico. 

In such a case it is not to be doubted that the permanent interests and sym- 
pathies of the United States would be with the other American republics. It 
is not intended on this occasion to predict the course of events which might 
happen as a consequence of the proceeding contemplated, either on this con- 
tinent or in Europe. It is sufficient to say that, in the opinion of the President, 
the emancipation of our own country from European control has been the prin- 
cipal feature in its history during the last century. 

Between some of the South American republics and our own there has 
existed, not remotely, an alienation, founded partly upon an imperfect apprecia- 
tion of our sentiments, partly upon errors and prejudices peculiar to themselves, 
and yet not altogether without fault upon our part — an alienation temporary in 
its character, and which I rejoice to know has yielded to a better knowledge of 
the government and people of the United States, and of the sincerity of their 
cordial interest in the integrity and welfare of sister republics. 

The social differences which distinguish the Latin races from those of north- 
ern stock are likely to be long perpetuated upon the continent of Europe. 
But there is a constant and rapid tendency towards harmony and assimilation be- 



486 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

tween them in America, and ultimately a constitution of society decidedly Amer- 
ican must exist here, Such a change is necessary to secure a complete de- 
velopment of the resources of the continent, and necessary even to render the 
states which are to exist here safe against domestic disorders and foreign ag- 
gression. The change, however, is to he effected, not hy wars and conquests, 
hut peacefully through the influence of moral causes. Every American state 
must practice patience and forbearance and cordial friendship towards every 
other, and all must come to learn that political institutions which fail to secure 
peace and to create prosperity cannot be upheld, even hy any combination with 
foreign powers. The United States want no more extended empire. The field 
they occupy is adequate to the employment of all their energies, and ample for 
the play of their just ambition. Thus content with their boundaries, they 
daily become more intolerant of the idea of any division of their domain or 
encroachment upon it by foreign powers. These sentiments have thus far been 
the great invigorating forces of the United States during their present domestic 
dissensions, and I need scarcely assure your excellency that they feel now con- 
fident of a speedy and complete re -establishment of peace within their borders. 
The Latin states of America may rest assured that the United States will main- 
tain their integrity and independence through the greatest trials, and thus show 
to the world that American institutions possess virtues and advantages which 
make the nations enjoying them indissoluble and invulnerable. 

We invite Chili and all other American states to cultivate the same spirit and 
exhibit the same determination. 

These, your excellency, are the sentiments of the government and people 
of the United States of America, and I gladly avail myself of this opportu- 
nity of manifesting to the government of Chili how deep is their interest in 
the welfare of every other American republic, how disinterested their desire 
that the relations subsisting between these several nations and their own shall 
assume a spirit more elevated than one of merely commercial or conventional 
amity, a spirit earnestly American in the continental sense of the word, and 
fraternal in no mere diplomatic meaning of the term, conducive to their mutual 
prosperity and happiness, and ultimately auspicious to all republican states 
throughout the world. 

Availing myself of this occasion, allow me to reiterate to your excellency 
the earnest assurances of distinguished consideration and high esteem with which 
I have the honor to remain your excellency's most obedient servant, 

THOMAS H. NELSON. 

His Excellency the Secretary of Foreign Eelations 

Of the Republic of C/uli. 



Mr. Nelson to Mr. Seward. 

[Extract.] 

No. 51.] Legation of the United States, 

Santiago de Chili, September 17, 1SG2. 

Sir : I have the honor to enclose herein a copy of a note addressed to me 
by the secretary of foreign relations of Chili on the 13th instant, in reply to 

the one transmitted by me to his excellency on the 30th ultimo. 

# # # ' # # # 

I have ihc honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

THOMAS H. NELSON. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State of the United States, 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 487 

Mr. Tocornal to Mr. Nelson. 

[Translation.] 

Santiago, September 13, 1862. 

The undersigned, minister of foreign relations of Chili, has had the honor to receive the 
note which the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States was 
pleased to address him, under date of the 30th ultimo. 

His excellency has thought proper therein to express to the undersigned how agreeable it 
is to him to initiate their relations by a manifestation of the sentiments which animate the 
government and people of the United States towards the Chilian government and nation, 
and towards all the other Spanish American republics. 

The undersigned, while accepting the manifestation transmitted by the Hon. Mr. Nelson, 
highly congratulates himself that it affords him the opportunity of setting forth, in his turn, 
the kindly feelings entertained by the Chilian government and people towards the government 
and people of the United States of North America. 

Nothing is more natural than that the republic of Chili should view with great interest the 
painful crisis at present afflicting the United States, and should pray for its early conclusion 
in the most satisfactory manner. 

Notwithstanding the diversity of origin and of language, the United States and the 
Spanish American republics are mutually united by the strong bond of analogous political 
institutions, in whose development they found the hope of a growing prosperity, which 
must, of necessity, cause each to view the fate of the others as of an interest not foreign, but 
their own. If, heretofore, there have been at times motives which may have enfeebled the 
friendly relations of the Spanish American republics with the United States ; if there has 
existed a Avant of confidence, either founded or unfounded ; if perhaps, the principles which 
guided the cabinet at Washington in diplomatic affairs have not always been well appre- 
ciated, the undersigned flatters himself that the solution of the crisis through which the 
United States are now passing, while it will assure them the elevated rank which, in a brief 
period of their history, they have obtained among the great nations of the earth, thanks to 
the powerful resources of their territory, and, more than all, to the admirable efforts of their 
citizens, must contribute to draw closer together the relations of true fraternity with the 
Spanish American states, causing all the republics of this continent to consider themselves 
■as the members of one and the same family. 

The sincere union of all the republics of the American continent, whatever be their historical 
antecedents, will be a fact pregnant with great and profitable results, since it must co- 
operate not only to the security of republican institutions, but, also, to the moral and 
material progress of these states, and even to the preservation of friendly relations with 
European nations, which Chili, as well as the United States, desires to cultivate and foment. 

The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States is also pleased 
to inform the undersigned that his government has viewed with especial interest the events 
occurring in Mexico ; and the President of the United States, although confident in the good 
faith of the allied powers, and in the sincerity of their promises not to intervene to change 
the form of government of Mexico, has deemed it his duty to manifest to them his opinion 
that a monarchy upheld b} r foreign armies and navies would have no prospect of permanency 
in that country. 

The undersigned has been especially charged by the President of the republic to manifest 
to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary that he participates in the accurate 
opinion of the President of the United States upon the inefficacy of substituting in Mexico 
for the republic a monarchy constituted in favor of a Mexican citizen or foreign prince. A 
foreign prince would, doubtless, need the constant aid and protection of foreign forces, which 
would place him under a permanent tutelage, which, while it would weaken the prestige of 
authority, would deprive him of his true independence. A citizen of Mexico would meet 
with analogous difficulties and the want of those historical antecedents which, in great part, 
constitute the power of monarchical governments. So that it is impossible to believe that it 
would succeed in meriting the adhesion of the people. 

Nor are social and political changes so easily effected. The constitution, in republics of 
the different sections of Spanish America, is, doubtless, the most prominent fact of their 
history, as it is in regard to the United States, as observed by his excellency the envoy ex- 
traordinary and minister plenipotentiary. And a new change in the form of government of 
Mexico would recpiire radical modifications in her customs and other social elements, which, 
even on the hypothesis that they could be effected at the cost of immense sacrifices and in a long 
series of years, would give room for a movement of reorganization, slow and dangerous, 
which would prolong the evil condition of affairs in Mexico instead of affording a remedy therefor. 

It is undoubtedly much to be regretted that the perturbations which have agitated the 
Spanish American republics, and especially Mexico, should have weakened the prestige of 
the republican system in the estimation of a few, obliging them to seek a remedy in another 
form of government, which, instead of being the end, would be the beginning of new and 
more sanguinary contests. 

By an error of judgment they deem order and prosperity irreconcilable with the republican 
system, as though stability and the guarantees of a good government belonged alone to 



488 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

monarchy, without reflecting that the history of all ages has condemned the principles of 
absolutism, and that (both) republicanism and monarchy have given to nations prosperity and 
glory. 

For the rest, the government of the United States ought ever to count upon the assurance 
of finding that reciprocity of ideas and sentiments which the undersigned has had the honor 
to manifest in this note to the honorable Mr. Nelson. 

The undersigned likewise entertains the conviction that his excellency, who so worthily 
and so acceptably to the government of Chili fulfils the high mission with which he is 
charged, will continue, as up to the present time, co-operating in the development and in- 
crease of the cordiality and harmony which happily exist between the republics of Chili and 
the United States. 

With this motive the undersigned takes pleasure in renewing to the envoy extraordinary 
and minister plenipotentiary the assurances of his high and distinguished consideration, and 
in subscribing himself his excellency's attentive and obsequious servant, 

MANUEL A. TOCOENAL. 

The Envoy Extraordinary 

and Minister Plenipotentiary of the 

United States of North America. 



Mr. Thayer to Mr. Setvard. 
[Extracts.] 
No. 26.] United States Consulate General, 

Alexandria, January 9, 1863. 

Sir : An event of apparently grave importance has just come to light, and 
produces much excitement in this community. 

On the morning of the 7th instant four hundred and fifty black soldiers were, 
by order of the viceroy of Egypt, taken by railway from the fortifications of the 
barrage, (about 120 miles south of Alexandria,) and at night shipped on board 
the French transport steamer La Seine, for a destination generalby understood 
to be Mexico, with the object of aiding the French Emperor in his military oper- 
ations against that country. These negroes, with others, departed early yes- 
terday morning; it is stated that they were dressed in zouave uniform and fully 
armed. 

In a letter from Toulon, which appeared in the Independence Beige of the 
28th ultimo, I am told, it was reported that La Seine was about to sail to Alex- 
andria with French troops en route for Cochin China, but that it would return 
with 1,000 negro troops which the viceroy had pledged to the French expedition 
against Mexico. 

Another journal, La France, of Paris, confirmed the report of such a promise 

on the part of his highness. 

******** 

Since it has become known, the time has been too short to obtain any in- 
formation from the viceroy, who is at Cairo, and his officers here profess entire 
ignorance, although the police under them were employed in the work of em- 
barking the troops. 

It is well understood that the French Emperor has been anxious to supply 
the losses which his Mexican army has suffered from climate and disease by 
the employment of blacks ; and the viceroy, I am told, declared a month ago 
that he was about to send a thousand of his men to some place where their 
quality might be tested. His highness, it is also known, has always been proud 
of his army, both black and white, the effectiveness of which, except in repulsing 
the raids of Bedoins, has not been fairly displayed since the war in the Crimea, 
where his men certainly distinguished themselves, as compared with other Ot- 
toman troops. 

******** 

I have the honor to he, sir, verv respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM S. THAYER. 
Hon. "William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 489 

Mr. Thayer to Mr. Seward. 
[Extract.] 

Alexandria, January 12, 1863. 

Sir : The facts in my despatch No. 26 are confirmed, but as I am awaiting 
explanations from the viceroy, I postpone destails until the next mail, which 
goes in a day or two. 

The European consuls general have telegraphed to their governments and are 
awaiting instructions. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM S. THAYER. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Thayer to Mr. Seward. 

No. 28.] Uxited States Consulate General, 

Alexandria, January 27, 1863. 

Sir : I am informed that some time since the minister of foreign affairs at 
Paris announced to Lord Cowley the Emperor's wish to procure blacks from 
Egypt. This report somewhat confirms the surmise in my last despatch that 
the Emperor had sounded the courts of Europe before taking a step which would 
violate the rights of the Porte, as suzerain of Egypt. It also partially accounts 
for the confidence with which, in official quarters here, it was predicted that 
there would be no protest from the European powers against the offence. In 
what light the proposed measure was presented to secure in advance such an 
acquiescence I can only conjecture. If these reports be true, the United States 
is the only great power which is not hampered from protesting against the 
Emperor's transaction. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM S. THAYER. 

Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 



No. 15. 
Suspension of trade with Matamoros. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, July 11, 1861. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with two enclosures, ) July 17, 1861. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure,) July 23, 1861. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with one enclosure.) July 31, 1861. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, August 1, 1861. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, (with one enclosure,) September 2, 1861. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, (with one enclosure,) September 7, 1861. 

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward, September 10, 1861. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero, September 13, 1861. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 

[Translation.] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, July 11, 1861. 

Mr. Secretary : Mr. B. F. Penniman, a merchant of Boston, has addressed 
himself to this legation, asking whether a vessel, laden with provisions and other 



490 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

articles of lawful commerce, will be permitted to leave said port, land her cargo 
in Matamoras, and sell it in that market. Mr. Penniman, who desires to send a 
vessel to the said port, further states that the honorable Secretary of the Treas- 
ury has notified the collector of customs at Boston not to clear any vessel what- 
ever for Matamoras, except under certain conditions, of which I am not advised, 
and which, however, are not made to apply to the other ports of Mexico. 

Although I believe that in the instructions which the Treasury Department 
may have issued upon this subject the legitimate interests of Mexico have been 
saved harmless, and the rights which she has acquired under the treaties which 
bind it to the United States have been preserved intact. I desire, nevertheless, 
to satisfy myself in this belief by a perusal of said instructions, and to be enabled 
to inform my government of them, for which purpose I would thank you to have 
the goodness to ask for and transmit to me a copy of the same. 

I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my very 
distinguished consideration, 

M. ROMEKO. 



Mr. Seioard to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, July 17, 1S61. 
Sir : Having referred your note of the 11th instant to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a letter addressed by 
him on the 19th ultimo to the collector of the customs at Boston, which contains 
the information you solicit. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
highest consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SE \YARD. 
Seiior Don Matias Romero, Sfc, Sfc, Sfc. 



Treasury Department, July 16, 1861. 
SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, en- 
closing a translation of a note from Mr. Romero, the Mexican minister, requesting a copyof 
the instructions given to the collector at Boston in regard to clearing vessels from that port 
to Matamoras, Mexico. A copy of the only instructions given to the collector at Boston on 
the subject is herewith transmitted, dated the 19th ultimo. 
I am, very respectfully, 

S. P. CHASE, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 
Secretary of Stutc. 



Treasury Department, July 19, 1861. 

SIR: I have received the letter of your deputy collector, B. F. Copelaud, of the l?th 
instant, inquiring whether any objection should be made by you to clearing at your port a 
British vessel with an assorted cargo, mostly provisions for Matamoras, Mexico. 

You are authorized to use your own discretion. It' yon are satisfied the merchandise is 
not intended for the insurgents you may clear. If not satisfied, you should refuse to grant 
a clearance. Von were notified to this effect by telegraph of the I5th instant. 
All official communications should be signed by you as collector. 
I am, very respectfully, 

S. P. CHASE, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 

Z. Goodrich, Esq., 

Collector, 8fC, Bustou, Mass. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 491 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, July 23, 1861. 

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note 
of the 17th instant, with which you were pleased to send me a copy of the 
instructions communicated by the Treasury Department to the collector of 
the customs at Boston on the clearance of vessels for Matamoras. At the same 
time I received a communication from the Mexican consul at New York, of which 
I annex a copy. In it he informs me that the collector at that port answered 
the merchant who inquired if he would clear vessels for Matamoros, that he 
would not give a categorical reply unless the vessels should be laden and ready 
to sail. 

Such proceedings, which, in my judgment, prejudice the mercantile relations 
of both countries and which are not in conformity with the stipulations of the 
treaty of commerce, which are obligatory, induce me to address myself anew to you 
on this subject, to the end that the government of the United States may please 
to dictate regulations such as the rights and legitimate interests of Mexico re- 
quire in the present case. 

You know, sir, that with respect to commercial advantages, Mexico is, in 
regard of the United States, on the same footing as any the most favored nations. 
For this reason, this merchandise, which may be lawfully exported to any port 
of a foreign nation, may also be exported to Vera Cruz, as well as to Mata- 
moras or other ports of Mexico. 

If by reason of especial circumstances, which at this time arise from the 
geographical position of Matamoras, the government of the United States should 
deem it convenient to make some exception in respect to that port, it would be 
necessary, in order to make it effective, to obtain in the first place the consent 
of the government of Mexico, and meantime, until this is attained, I shall hold 
it to be ray duty to request that no difference shall be made between that port 
and the others of the Mexican republic, 

I have the honor to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my highest consid- 
eration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., fye., fyc. 



[Translation.] 
Mexican Consulate, New York, July 17, 1861. 

At different times merchants of this city have approached this office, under my care, in- 
quiring whether I would think it inexpedient to clear a vessel laden with merchandise for 
the port of Matamoras ; and upon asking for the cause of this inquiry, they replied that the 
collector of the customs at this port had declared "that he will not give any categorical 
answer whether he will or will not clear a vessel for the said port of Matamoras until she be 
laden and ready to sail ;" and that the parties interested understood this to be a sort of re- 
fusal, and were, therefore, not willing to incur the risk of lading their vessel, because after 
having done so they could not clear her. My reply was, naturally, that this office finds no 
difficulty in giving the consular clearance to any vessel lawfully seeking it for a Mexican 
port, such as Matamoras ; but that, at the same time, because of the geographical position 
of said port, and the political state of this country at present, I would not pass any invoice 
which should include arms, munitions, powder and its components ; that this decision was 
entirely spontaneous with me, and I would submit it to my government for approval, (as I 
do through your esteemed intervention,) so that for the future the resolution which may be 
adopted will serve as a rule of conduct. 

In consequence of what is stated, and considering that it is a grave injury to trade that 
doubts of this kind be entertained. I ask your recourse, sir, to the government of the 



492 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

United States, that it may issue instructions respecting it to the collector of the customs at 
this port, in order that he may reply decidedly that the Mexican port of Matamoras is not 
to he considered as comprehended in the blockade of the ports of the rebel States pro- 
claimed by the President of the United States, because, although it is perfectly true that 
the bar of the Rio Bravo del Norte is at the entrance common to said port and the port of 
Brownsville, I also know that, by the ti - eaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded between 
Mexico and the United States, the navigation of that river is neutral. 

I reiterate to you, sir, my respect and consideration. God and liberty ! 

J. M. DURAN. 

To the Charge d'affaires 

Of the Mexican Legation, Washington. 

A true copy.— July 23, 1861. 

ROMERO. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, July 31, 1S61. 

Sir : Having submitted your note of the 23d instant to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, I have the honor to communicate herewith a copy of a letter from 
him dated yesterday, containing his decision in reference to the subject laid 
before him, and which, I trust, will be regarded by the Mexican government as 
another proof of the disposition of the United States to facilitate as much as 
possible the commercial intercourse between the two countries. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
highest consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Seiilor Don Matias Romero, fyc, fyc, fyc. 



Treasury Department, July 30, 1861. 

SIR: I have the honor to return herewith the note of Mr. Romero, the Mexican minister, 
in regard to the clearance of vessels for Matamoras, Mexico, enclosed for my consideration 
in your communication of the 26th instant. 

I can perceive no objection to the granting of clearances to vessels destined to Matamoras 
laden with merchandise of any kind except arms and munitions of war. Owing to the 
proximity of that port to Brownsville and other ports in Texas, on the Rio Grande, and the 
facility with which arms and munitions of war may be furnished from that point to the in- 
surgents, it is obvious that one of the chief purposes of the blockade would be likely to be 
defeated if articles of that description should be freely imported into Matamoras. 

But in view of the 1 friendly relations so happily subsisting between the United States and 
Mexico, and which it is the desire and interest of both countries to maintain unimpaired, the 
restriction of the commerce of the United States with Mexican ports on the Rio Grande will 
be confined within the narrowest limits compatible with the maintenance of an effective 
blockade. No obstacle will, of course, be interposed to commercial intercourse between 
the United States and Mexican ports not on the Rio Grande. 

Instructions to this effect will be given to collectors of the customs. 
I am, very respectfully, 

S. P. CHASE, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 

Hon. W. H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 493 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation in the United States of America, 

Washington, August 1, 1861. 
Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note 
dated yesterday, in which you were pleased to enclose to me a copy of the 
communication of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury of the 30th of 
July last, touching the clearance of vessels for Matamoras. 

I this day transmit a copy of your note, aforementioned, and of the commu- 
nication accompanying it, to the government of Mexico, for its information and 
final decision upon this subject. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my very 
distinguished consideration . 

M. ROMERO. 
Hon. William H. Seward, &fc, Syc., fyc. 



Mr. Romero to Mr. Seioard. 

[Translation. J 

Mexican Legation to the United States of America, 

Washington, September 2, 1861. 

Mr. Secretary : I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a note ad- 
dressed to this legation, under date of 31st August last past, by the Mexican 
consul at New York, stating that the custom-house at that port refuses to clear 
for Matamoras the schooner Alexander, which had been loading for several 
days, and which was already prepared to sail for her destination, not having 
on board arms or munitions of war. 

Believing that the cause of such proceeding must be that said custom-house 
had not yet had notice of the resolutions of the Treasury Department of the 
31st of July last, which you were pleased to communicate to me in your note 
of the 31st of the same month, I address myself to you, requesting that you will 
bring these facts to the knowledge of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury 
for the results that should ensue. 

I avail of this opportunity, sir, to renew to you the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. William H. Seward, fyc., Sfc., fyc. 



[Translation.] 



Mexican Consulate at New York, 

New York, August 31, 1861. 

To-day Messrs. Schepeler & Co., merchants of this place, presented themselves at this 
office, showing that the custom-house of this port refused absolutely a clearance for Mata- 
moras to the English schooner Alexander M., which has been loading for several days, and 
was to-day prepared to sail for her destination. The s*me gentlemen have stated to me that 
the cargo referred to consists solely of merchandise for the demands of Mexican trade, and 
contains nothing contraband of war of any kind. 

The house mentioned cleared, on the 19th of the month now ending, the English schooner 
Brunette for the same port, and the custom-house interposed no hindrance whatever ; and 
as much by reason of this precedent as because they obtained from this consulate the infor- 
mation, respectively, about the notes of the 31st July from the Department of State, and of 



494 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

the 30th of the same mouth from that of the treasury, copies of which you seut me -with 
your communication relating to it of the 1st of the present month ; for these two reasons, I 
say, the Messrs. Schepcler & Co. proceeded in loading the vessel to which the respective 
documents of clearance are now refused. I bring the matter to your knowledge for your 
correct information, and for the results for which it may make place, with the understanding 
that it seems very strange that this government, after having given its decision in the notes 
to which I have referred above, changes it to-day without reason and without cause — with- 
out reason, because the American government has not the right to close up a port of a 
friendly nation, perhaps the only one that has given proofs of friendship under existing 
circumstances : and without cause, because the two vessels which have sailed for Matamoras, 
the Brunette and the "William R. Kibby, on the 39th and 28th of the month now ending, 
have not carried any contraband of war, at least with knowledge of this consulate, because 
I very decidedly stated to the shippers that I would not pass any invoice whatever which 
contained arms or munitions of war, and the business was in fact so carried out. I ask you 
to place this statement in the knowlege of the Secretary of State, and be pleased to commu- 
nicate the result to inc. 

God and liberty ! 

J. M. DUEAX. 

To the Charge of the Legation at Washington. 

Washington, September 2, 1861. 
True copy : 

ROMERO. 



Mr. Seicard to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, September 7, 1861. 

SIR : Having transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury a translation of 
your note of the 2d instant, and of its enclosure, relating to clearances of vessels 
from loyal ports of the United States to Matamoras, 1 have now the honor to 
communicate' to you a copy of his reply, just received, dated the 5th instant. 

A careful examination of the whole subject impresses me with the irresistible 
conviction that the course which the Secretary of the Treasury has been im- 
pelled to adopt is absolutely necessary to the public interest. 

I sincerely share the regrets which he expresses that the exigencies of our 
condition should impose the slightest restriction upon commercial intercourse 
with a friendly nation, but I also anticipate, with much confidence, that the 
enlightened government of Mexico will not hesitate to appreciate and admit the 
imperative necessity which dictates the measure resorted to. 

1 avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 

Senor Don Matias Romero, fyc, t\c, Sfc. 



Treasury Department, September 5, 1861. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 3d instant, 
inviting my attention to the translation of a note, dated the 2d instant, from Mr. Romero, 
Mexican charge" d'affaires, upon the subject of clearances to vessels bound to Matamoras. 

Having been informed, before the receipt of your communication, of the great increase of 
shipments to Matamoras, much beyond, it is believed, any legitimate demand in that portion 
of Mexico, and believing tbat whatever might be their ostensible destination, they were, in 
fact, intended for the insurgents in*Texas, 1 directed the collector at New York to grant no 
more clearances for Matamoras without my special directions to that effect. This restriction 
I propose to make general. 

I sincerely participate with you in the regret that the present condition of affairs in that 

ection of the United States Contiguous to Mexico renders it necessary to place a partial and 

lorary restriction over our trade with a friendly and neighboring nation. While, how- 
the injury which may be thus inflicted on the legitimate trade of Mexico most be slight. 



MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 495 

the continuance of commercial intercourse with Matamoras might be seriously detrimental to 
the United States in the contest she is now waging to restore her rightful authority in the 
insurgent States. The Mexican authorities, it is believed, cannot fail to perceive, and to 
appreciate in a liberal spirit, the necessity of this measure in the present exigency of our 
national affairs, although it may seem to wear an unfriendly aspect. 
I am, very respectfully, 

S. P. CHASE, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
Hon. William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



Mr. Romeo to Mr. Seward. 
[Translation. ] 

Mexican Legation to the United States op America, 

Washington, September 10, 1861. 

Mr. Secretary : I have had the honor to receive the note you were pleased 
to address to me under date of 7th instant, communicating to me the decision 
of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury, in relation to having ordered the 
suspension of the clearance of vessels from ports of the United States not under 
blockade, to Matamoras. 

I confess, sir, that the note of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury of the 
5th instant, of which you did me the favor to send me a copy, and which con- 
tains the reasons which caused that measure, has given me a painful impression. 

I hold myself entirely absolved from exception in confining myself to show- 
ing the obligation which the government of the United States lies under to grant 
clearances of vessels from the recognized ports of this country for any port in 
Mexico, provided such clearances are given to the ports of any other nation. 
To exclude Matamoras from this right is equivalent to its partial blockade, which 
I do not consider the government of the United States is authorized to do in 
the state of peace in which we happily find ourselves. 

Without prejudice to my giving an immediate report to my government of 
this decision of the United States, and reserving the right to act according to 
what may be resolved upon in Mexico upon this business, I believe it to be my 
duty to make some corrections of the representations which determined the ac- 
tion of the Treasury Department ; these explanations, looked upon in a friendly 
manner, are, to my understanding, sufficient to determine the revocation of that 
measure. 

Since the last demarcation of boundaries made between Mexico and the United 
States placed Matamoras on the dividing line, the commerce of that port has 
greatly increased. Now it receives not only the articles required for the con- 
sumption of the city, but many others with which it supplies Tamaulipas and 
other neighboring states. 

Nearly one-half of the articles imported in the Mexican republic during the 
last six years have come in over the frontier, being brought from the United 
States, although, until this time, the greater part of such importations have 
been clandestine. The two principal places of deposit were Matamoras, which 
received the goods from New Orleans and Paso del Norte in Chihuahua, which 
received them from St. Louis, Missouri. In consequence of the blockade of 
the former, and of the interruption of communication between the latter with 
the seceding States, this great traffic on the frontier has been suspended, and 
for the purpose of re-establishing and following it up in a regular and lawful 
manner the merchants of Matamoras sent their orders to the merchants of NeAv 
York and Boston. 

How, then, should it cause astonishment that, when the honorable Secretary 



496 MEXICAN AFFAIRS. 

of the Treasury permitted the clearance of vessels for Matamoras, after a com- 
plete paralysis of several mouths, two vessels sailed from New York, with a few 
days only between, and a third should he getting ready for departure 1 

The injury, then, which will result to Mexico from the suspension of its 
lawful trade is not so slight as Mr. Chase believes. The merchants of Mata- 
moras, who find the markets of the United States closed to them, will seek what 
they want in Europe, and then the injury will reach also the bona fide com- 
merce of this country. 

I beg you, sir, to have the goodness to communicate this note to Mr. Chase, 
as I have no doubt from his acknowledged enlightenment, that he will find in 
these explanations motives which justify the revocation of that direction. 

I avail of this opportunity to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my very 
distinguished consideration. 

M. ROMERO. 

Hon. Wm. H. Seward, SfC., fyc, fyc. 



Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero. 



Department of State, 

Washington, September 13, 1861. 

Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 10th instant, re- 
plying to mine of the 7th, relative to the suspension of clearances for Matamoras. 

After a careful perusal of your note, I am constrained to admit that I do not 
perceive the analogy you suggest between the measure adopted by this gov- 
ernment for its own safety and the blockade of a port of a friendly power. 
There is unquestionable room for doubt as to the bona fide character of the 
traffic carried on between Matamoras and the frontier of the insurgent State of 
Texas, and this government would be derelict to the first principle of national 
existence if it failed to make the consideration of its own safety and integrity 
one of paramount importance. 

Under these circumstances, the order for the suspension of clearances for 
Matamoras cannot, at this juncture, be rescinded; and it is confidently believed, 
indeed it cannot be doubted, that the enlightened government of Mexico will, 
upon mature deliberation, not only justify, but approve the measure. 

A copy of this note, as well as of your own, to which it is a reply, will be 
transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my 
most distinguished consideration. 

WM. H. SEWARD. 

Seilor Don Matias Romero, Sfc., fyc., Sfc. 



I.BAp'04 



